Hyderabad: Speculations over the past few months that Congress strongman after strongman from Nalgonda would switch over to the TRS have remained just that—speculations. While no Congress leader from the district has deserted the party, TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been successful in his efforts to dilute the credibility of the Congress leaders. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao has been insisting that the Congress leaders join the TRS without preconditions as he cannot dislodge his trusted energy minister Jagdishwar Reddy from the Cabinet.
According to sources, when Miryalaguda MLA N. Bhaskara Rao and Nalgonda MP Gutta Sukhender Reddy met the Chief Minister a day ago, the CM asked Mr Sukhender Reddy to join the TRS. Without rejecting the offer, the MP said that doing so wouldn’t be much beneficial since he would lose his Lok Sabha membership as the Speaker may have to disqualify him if the AICC president lodged a complaint. He also told the TRS chief that he cannot contest the bypoll to become a TRS MP, the sources said.
The sources added that the MP told the TRS chief that if he was offered an MLC seat and a promise of a Cabinet berth, he could consider joining the TRS. Mr Sukhender Reddy’s brother has already joined the TRS and his brother-in-law was the TRS candidate for the Nalgonda Assembly seat. His cousin is a contractor and recently bagged projects worth Rs 1,000 crore. Mr Sukhender Reddy has been denying that he would join the TRS, but after Friday’s meeting with the CM, he said: “As of today, I am in the Congress, but what will happen tomorrow, I cannot say.”
He also praised Mission Bhagiratha and irrigation projects taken up by government, something which he was highly critical of earlier. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao also lauded the efforts of Miryalaguda MLA Bhaskar Rao for ensuring smooth conduct of public hearing on the 4,000 MW thermal power plant in his constituency. He pointed out that while there were protests and agitations even over a small thermal unit, it was a great effort by the local MLA and the officials that everything went off without any hitch.
The TRS chief also asked Mr Bhaskar Rao to join the TRS, but the MLA said that he owed his political life to K. Jana Reddy. Similarly, as far as Komatireddy Venkata Reddy is concerned, he cannot work with anybody due to his self-centric politics and if he indeed joins the TRS, it would be quite difficult for him to get along with Mr Jagadishwar Reddy. Mr Venkata Reddy had met the CM earlier but could not decide on joining the TRS. The other three MLAs from the district are Mr Jana Reddy, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy and his wife Padmavathi.
