Hyderabad: The forthcoming Lok Sabha elections will be a testing time for Telangana Rashtra Samiti MLAs. Telangana state Chief Minister and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has announced that the MLAs would be accorded posts like Cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries based on their performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
Mr Rao wants to play a crucial role in the national politics after the Lok Sabha elections and it will be beneficial for him if his party wins maximum number of Lok Sabha seats from the state. His target is to win 16 out of the 17 seats in Telangana state.
In the recent Assembly elections, the TRS got majority in 14 out of the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies, except in Hyderabad, Khammam and Mahbuba-bad. In Hyderabad, the MIM, a party friendly to the TRS, got a majority. In Khammam Mahbubabad, the People's Front led by the Congress got majority.
In the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and the Telugu Desam may not have an alliance, which will help the TRS in Khammam and Mahbubabad Lok Sabha constituencies. Keeping this in mind, Mr Rao has decided to take into consideration the performance of MLAs while giving posts. He wants the MLAs to help TRS candidates for Lok Babha elections in their segments garner bigger majority than what they got in the recent Assembly elections.
The TRS leadership is of the view that this will motivate the MLAs to compete with each other in garnering votes for the Lok Sabha candidates.
In places where there are differences between the MLAs and Lok Sabha candidates, they will have to bury the hatchets. Before the recent Telangana state Assembly elections, Mr Rao had predicted that the TRS would win 100 plus seats, but the party got only 88. Mr Rao said that due to internal fights among leaders, the TRS lost 10 to 15 seats. He is determined to ensure that this does not happen in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. If any MLA or leader tries to harm the chances of a TRS candidate winning in the Lok Sabha elections, the Chief Minister has decided to take serious action against them.
