Hyderabad: After Chief Minister and TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao spurned its plea to leave Palair Assembly seat to the kin of sitting member late Ramreddy Venkat Reddy, the main Opposition Congress has knocked at the doors of the Telugu Desam and other parties seeking their support in the bypoll.
Mr Rao reportedly refused to grant an audience to the Congress leaders as well as the family members of the late MLA on the issue. TRS has decided to field R&B minister Tummala Nageswara Rao saying that surveys indicate a huge win for the party in the byelection.
Following this, TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and working president Bhatti Mallu Vikramarka called up TS TD president L. Ramana and sought his party’s support for the Congress nominee.
“Uttam Kumar Reddy called me up and sought our support. We will take up the matter with our party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu for a decision. As of now, we are contemplating whether to field Nama Nageswara Rao,” Mr Ramana told DC.
This is the first time that the Congress has sought the support of its archrival, the TD, in an election though there has been an unspoken understanding between them in the recent Achampet civic polls.
CPM leader Tammineni Veerabhadharam too curtly rejected the Congress request. “Congress sought our support, but we have already decided to field our candidate. We may have tie up with CPI. We never had a tie-up with other parties in this constituency. We have a good base here. We will contest,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Rao is being criticised by the Opposition for casting aside the tradition of leaving seats to kin of sitting MLAs in the event of their death.
“KCR has thrown all niceties and traditions to winds. It has been a practice to leave seats to kin of legislators who passed away due to ill health. KCR has nothing else but politics in mind,” Mr Vikramarka fumed.
Mr Nama Nageswara Rao echoed the sentiment, saying: “The tradition of leaving seats to kin of dead legislators had been in vogue for long. KCR lacks basic courtesies. Tummala Nageswara Rao should resign as minister and MLC and contest the poll. This will check misuse of official machinery.”
TRS allowed to hold plenary, with riders
The Election Commission of India on Friday gave conditional permission to the ruling TRS to conduct its 15th plenary and public meeting at Khammam on April 27.
As per the EC order, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his ministers will have to drop all official frills and attend the meeting only as party leaders and will have to bear all expenses.
The EC’s restrictions are in view of the Model Code of Conduct being in force in Khammam district due to the Palair Assembly byelection necessitated due to death of sitting MLA Ramreddy Venkat Reddy.
