Hyderabad: In a setback to the Telangana Congress, senior Congress leader and former PCC chief D. Srinivas has reportedly decided to join the Telangana Rashtra Samiti. Chief Minister and TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao is learnt to have invited him to join TRS where he will be “honoured,” hinting that he would be the party candidate for the Rajya Sabha election in March next year.
Mr Srinivas was upset that the Congress had ignored him totally, and did not re-nominate him for the lone MLC seat that the party could win. It is learnt that he did not get a response from the AICC for two letters he had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. No leader worth mentioning had gone to pacify the sulking leader.
Mr Srinivas told Deccan Chronicle, “I have not yet decided on quitting the Congress and joining the TRS. I will announce it soon after taking a decision.” Mr Rao had called Nizamabad district leaders for the past few days collected their inputs on inducting Mr Srinivas. Nizamabad was the only district where the TRS swept the polls in 2014, bagging all nine Assembly and one Lok Sabha seat.
Former Congress leader Bajireddy Govardhan, who switched loyalities to the TRS before the elections, had won the Nizamabad Rural Assembly defeating Mr Srinivas.
That was Mr Srinivas’ third consecutive defeat since the 2009 Assembly polls. TRS sources said Mr Rao had persuaded all leaders and assured them Mr Srinivas’ entry would not disturb their political equations. Sources said Mr Rao was of the view that inducting Mr Srinivas, who belongs to the dominant Munnuru Kapu community, would strengthen ruling party further.
