By: Ch. V.M. Krishna Rao
Hyderabad: Making it a prestige issue Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday issued a whip to all ministers to be in touch with the local party leadership and see to it that the TRS bags the maximum number of chairman’s posts in the zilla and mandal parishads, municipal council and municipal corporations.
In an informal meeting with ministers at his residence in the afternoon, Mr Rao asked them to use all their skills in wooing elected local body members from the Opposition to support the TRS.
This would be useful for the party to get its MLC nominees elected from the local body quota, to which elections are in the offing.
Of the nine zilla parishads in Telangana, the Khammam election has been stayed by the High Court. In the remaining eight, the TRS can win Adilabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar. In Nalgonda, the Congress bagged a majority of the seats but much depends on whom it nominates for the chairman’s post.
TRS ministers Jagadeshwar Reddy and Nayani Narasimha Reddy are trying to create a rift among Congress members by offering support to one group so that the TRS can also net the Nalgonda ZP.
Though the Congress bagged majority seats in Warangal in the ZPTC elections, the TRS has started wooing Congress members.
Former government chief whip Gandra Venkataramana Reddy said crores of rupees are being offered to Congress ZPTCs to switch over to the TRS. Though it is a hung house in Medak district with the Congress and the TRS getting an equal number of ZPTCs, the ruling party has a majority with the recent induction of Congress MLC Bhupal Reddy into the party.
Efforts for wooing the Congress, BJP and the TD ZPTCs are on in full swing even in Mahbubnagar. In Ranga Reddy Congress MLC Yadava Reddy is trying to be the chairman but he is short of four ZPTCs. The TRS is trying to lure him to its side; five Congress MLCs have joined the TRS recently.
Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle