TRS to target BJP in state\'s Budget Session

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is all set to target the BJP in the budget session of the legislature to begin on March 7.

The ruling party used to target the Congress in previous sessions.
The change of prime opponent highlights new political equations with TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao declaring an all-out war on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi since Huzurabad Assembly bypoll result in November last.

Sources in the TRS said the 'political strategy' towards the BJP would be the main agenda of the Cabinet meeting convened by the Chief Minister at Pragathi Bhavan on Sunday. Although the meeting is usually held a day before the presentation of the budget, the Chief Minister is understood to have decided to discuss at length and brief ministers on how to deal with the BJP in the House.

The tussle between the TRS and the BJP reached its peak after senior TRS leader and former health minister Etala Rajender quit the TRS to join the BJP and tendered resignation to Huzurabad MLA seat in June last year forcing bypoll in October last. Rajender won the bypoll as the BJP candidate with a handsome majority trouncing the TRS even after the Chief Minister, ministers, scores of TRS MLAs, MLCs and MPs campaigning in Huzurabad to defeat Rajender.

Now, Rajender's entry into the Assembly for the first time as a BJP member is something which treasury benches are unable to digest. Rajender who represented the TRS in Assembly for nearly 17 years is expected to attack the Chief Minister and the TRS in his new avatar as the BJP MLA.

Party leadership wants ministers and TRS MLAs to counter Rajender’s charges against the TRS government. The ruling party plans to debate the Modi government's 'lopsided' policies on farmers, power reforms besides 'discrimination' towards Telangana in the sanction of funds and projects to attack the BJP.