HYDERABAD: TRS leaders on Thursday laughed off the claims of BJP state president Bandi Sanjay that about a dozen ruling party MLAs would join his party anytime.
TRS MLAs asked why an MLA of a ruling party would prefer to join an Opposition party, and that too the BJP which won just one seat in the 2018 Assembly elections and won two seats in bypolls with much difficulty. They said even those in those two seats, the candidates won not on account of the BJP's strength but on their own strength.
The BJP MLAs from Dubbak and Huzurabad were originally from the TRS, ruling party leaders said. They claimed that all the recent surveys including those commissioned by the Congress and the BJP had clearly indicated that the TRS would retain power for the third term in 2023.
LB Nagar MLA Devireddy Sudheer Reddy said, "Sanjay is just indulging in idiotic talk. He is only trying to play mind games by repeatedly saying that TRS MLAs are in touch with the BJP. He has been doing this for a long time. But not a single MLA from the TRS has joined the BJP so far. Let alone MLA, not even TRS corporators joined the BJP. It's BJP's corporators who joined the TRS when BJP's national executive meeting was held in the city in July which was attended by Prime Minister Modi, home minister Amit Shah, 18 Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and Union ministers. This shows that the BJP leaders want to migrate to the TRS and not the other way round."
Jubilee Hills MLA and TRS Hyderabad district president Maganti Gopinath asked who would join the BJP which was facing wrath of women for increasing the price of domestic cylinder to Rs 1,100, poor and middle class for increasing prices of petrol, diesel and essential commodities by levying GST and other taxes.
"Is it possible for you to go to the public and seek votes as a BJP candidate? As TRS candidates, we can seek votes based on the government's Aasara pensions, Kalyana Lakshmi, Shaadi Mubarak, 2BHK houses etc,” Gopinath said.
Quthbullapur MLA G. Vivekanand said Sanjay's claims were nothing but a desperate attempt to stop migration of leaders from the BJP to the TRS. "All the recent surveys including those commissioned by the BJP and the Congress clearly indicated that the TRS will retain power for a third term in 2023 Assembly polls. BJP leaders and cadre are worried over this and are attempting to switch over to the TRS. To prevent this, Sanjay is repeatedly making statements that the TRS MLAs are in touch with BJP," he said.
