Nirmal: Differences that have cropped up among the TRS leaders came to fore on Friday with Khanapur MLA Azmeera Rekha Naik filing a police complaint against Mr Ramesh Rathod, who recently joined the party.
Some TRS leaders had opposed Mr Rathod’s entry into the party. The TRS top brass had anticipated such a scenario before Mr Rathod’s entry, according to sources.
TS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao asked Mr Rathod to treat Ms Naik as he would treat his sister on the dais during a function to welcome him into the party fold.
At that time, there were rumours that Mr Rathod avoided local ministers Jogu Ramanna and A. Indrakaran Reddy, and instead spoke to Mr Tummala Nageswara Rao, who also came to the TRS from the Telugu Desam to pave the way for his switching sides to the ruling party.
There are three Assembly constituencies reserved for STs — Asifabad, Boath and Khanapur. Ms Naik had tried to get the TD ticket from Asifabad when Mr Rathod was dominating district politics and failed to do so. She contested as an Independent in 2009 elections and suffered a defeat at the hands of Congress candidate Atram Sakku.
She later joined the Congress and then the TRS and got the party ticket in the last elections. Now, both Mr Rathod and Ms Naik are aspiring for the TRS ticket from Khanapur Assembly constituency for the next elections and reports are doing rounds in political circles Ms Naik’s husband Shyam Naik is aspiring for the Adilabad Lok Sabha ticket.
