HYDERABAD: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is said to be trying to take advantage of internal rifts in the opposition BJP and the Congress.
The party leadership has alerted leaders and cadres in Karimnagar district to keenly track the developments in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) following reports of rebellion brewing up in the party against its state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar. The party leadership alerted them about old-timers in the BJP holding a ‘secret meeting’ in Karimnagar recently against the leadership of Sanjay accusing him of giving prominence to turncoats and new entrants from other parties while neglecting the old-timers who were working in the BJP for years and decades.
The TRS sources said that the party leadership had alerted leaders and cadres in all districts that Karimnagar type meetings were expected to be held in all districts by the BJP old-timers soon and asked them to extend all cooperation from their side for such meetings. The strategy is to attract old-timers in the BJP and the Congress into the TRS-fold who feel neglected in their parties after Sanjay and Revanth Reddy took over reins of respective parties.
The party is also keenly watching the voices of dissent being raised in the Congress against the leadership of Telangana Prade-sh Congress Committee chief A. Revanth Reddy. The party believes that old-timers in the Congress in several districts are averse to work under Revanth Reddy’s leadership and exploring alternative options.
The party wants to open gates for disgruntled leaders in the Congress and the BJP and wants to project that the TRS is getting even stronger by inducting leaders from the Opposition parties.
After the Huzurabad bypoll debacle, the TRS feared exodus of disgruntled leaders to the BJP and the Congress but TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao could check it by offering nominated posts in the party and the government. It wants to adopt the same strategy in the run-up to the Assembly polls in December 2023.
Leaders such as L. Ramana (from the TD) and Padi Kaushik Reddy (from Congress) who joined the TRS during Huzurabad bypoll were already made MLCs. The party wants to lure top leaders from other parties with such lucrative posts in the coming days.
