TRS eyes Legislative Council Chairman post

Hyderabad: The TRS government, which has absolute ma-jority in the Assembly, is now aiming to wrest control of the Legisla-tive Council too.

In fact, Telugu Desam floor leader in the Coun-cil B. Venkateshwarulu, who joined the TRS, wanted Chief Minister and TRS chief K. Chan-drasekhar Rao to strive to wrest the posts of Ch-airman and

Deputy Cha-irman in the Legislative Council at the earliest to  ensure smooth passage of bills and accelerate development of the new state of Telangana.
Congress MLC Nethi Vidyasagar is acting Ch-airman of the Council.

At present, the Legisla-tive Council has 36 members where the total strength is 40 of which TRSs’ strength is 15 with the addition of nine MLCs to their present strength of six, including the latest nomination of Nayani Narasimha Reddy and Ramulu Naik.

From the present 63 MLAs, the TRSs’ stren-gth in the Assembly has gone up to 65 with the ad-dition of two BSP MLAs.

Interestingly, the TRS which faced defections when YSR was in power is now getting legislators to its fold from other parties.

The legislators, who have joined, also dismissed action from their parties under the Anti-Defection Law. “I am really hurt by the anti-Telangana stance of the Telugu Desam. The cancellation of PPAs, merger of seven mandals under Polavaram project in Kh-ammam district with An-dhra Pradesh and other actions have pained me. I rose from MPP to MLC. I see a strong leader in KCR,” TD MLC Venkateswarlu said.

Congress MLC T. Bha-nu Prasad Rao said all those who joined the TRS were actively involved in the Telangana movement. “We are neither angry with Mrs Sonia Gandhi or the Congress. We still have respect for them. Remember, Telan-gana has been carved out thanks to Mrs Sonia Gandhi and the struggle by KCR. Only KCR can build Bangaru Telangana,” he said.

The Chief Minister singled out K.R.Amos for leading the Telangana movement in the late 60s and praised him for all his efforts. “I always respected him. He led the movement initially,” Mr Rao said. Mr Amos, Mr I. Indrakaran Reddy and other legislators promised to stand by Mr Rao in the development of Telangana.