Political atmosphere likely to heat up in Telangana, key meetings today

 HYDERABAD: All eyes are on the outcome of the Cabinet meeting and TRS Legislature Party (TRSLP) meeting that will be chaired by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao here on Saturday. The back to back meetings on the same day have further heated up political atmosphere.

Official sources said curtailing powers of the Governor as chancellor of universities by amending the Telangana Universities Act, holding year-long  ‘Telangana Vajrotsavalu’ to mark completion of 74 years of the merger of Telangana (Hyderabad state) into Indian Union from September 17 to counter BJP's plans to celebrate Telangana Liberation Day, barring CBI from entering Telangana by withdrawing the 'general consent' clause that was given to the CBI to carry out search operations in the state without informing the government, are likely to come up for discussion in the Cabinet meeting.

If approved, it would imply that CBI officers will now have to seek permission from the state government every time they wish to enter the state on official duty.
Chandrashekar Rao, IT minister K.T. Rama Rao, several ministers and senior TRS leaders are consistently attacking central government agencies such as CBI, ED and the I-T accusing them of harassing leaders of opposition parties and discharging duties as per the directions of BJP-led government at the Centre
The Cabinet meeting will start by 2 pm at Pragathi Bhavan while the TRSLP Legislature Party meeting will be around 6 pm at Telangana Bhavan.

The TRSLP meeting is likely to devise the party's political strategy for Munugode Assembly byelection and gearing up the party's rank and file for Assembly polls besides discussing early polls.

States such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have recently curtailed the powers of Governor as chancellor of universities while West Bengal issued a notification withdrawing general consent given to the CBI to carry out search and probe activities without informing the state government.

The Telangana government, which is engaged in a bitter political battle with the BJP and the government at the Centre, wants to follow suit and make necessary amendments in this regard during the Assembly session.

The state government is not on good terms with Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan for long. She is making visits to universities frequently besides making adverse remarks against the state government.

The TRSLP meeting assumes significance in the backdrop of Rao directing all party MLCs and MPs to attend the meeting along with MLAs.