Many Congress Leaders Joining Telangana Party In AP

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is not bothered about inducting the MLAs from other parties in its party but wants three Congress MPs – Dr Manda Jagannadham, S Rajaiah and Dr G Vivekanand – and it has its own and valid reasons for the same.

These Congress leaders are SCs and wield considerable clout in their respective parliamentary constituencies while the TRS has not been able to identify the right candidates for these seats in the last five years.

If they join the TRS, they will become party’s candidates and the job of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, to achieve the target of winning 15 Lok Sabha seats in the next elections, will be fulfilled to some extent. Latest addition to the list is K Keshav Rao, former APCC president.


KCR went and called on Keshav Rao at the latter’s residence and Jagannadham joined them. Grapevine has it that Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy and Senior-most Minister in Andhra Pradesh Government K Jana Reddy may also board the ‘car’. Of course, Jana Reddy told reporters that he had no idea if the MPs were quitting the party and joining the TRS. “If I do so, I will surely inform you,” he told reporters.

Keshav Rao also said that KCR had invited him to join the party so that all those fighting for Telangana would come under one umbrella. “I am ready to do anything for Telangana. The Congress has ditched the region,” he pointed out.

At present, the SCs and STs are either supporting the Congress, Telugu Desam or YSR Congress in the region and only a miniscule percentage are left with the TRS. The party is unsure of the support of Muslims in view of its reported plans to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre after the elections and is desperate in having the vote bank of other sections.

Manda Jagannadham, who held a two-hour meeting with Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday night after the latter returned to city from his day-long tour of his Mahbubnagar Parliamentary constituency, reportedly sought Alampur Assembly ticket for one of his family members.

The TRS should not have any problem as it has no formidable candidate to lock horns with sitting MLA and Congress leader Abraham. Moreover, Jagannadham will take the responsibility of winning the seat for the party, if his request is considered.

In fact, Chandrasekhar Rao has openly asked Dr Vivekanand to join his party at a public meeting a couple of months ago as the Congress will not announce separate state and there was no need for him to hang around that party.

These MPs are angry with Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for ignoring them as they are more vocal compared to other Congress MPs from the region in raising the demand for separate state.

Meanwhile, two TDP MLAs — Gangula Kamalakar and Suddala Devaiah — are likely to call on KCR in the next 24 hours. In fact, Kamalakar said that he would take the view of his cadre and opinion of people staying put in Karimnagar before finalising his decision.