Municipal polls will be TRS’ first strike on BJP

Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s top leadership is working on a strategy to counter the aggressive approach of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the ensuing municipal elections.

On Friday, the TRS’ working president K.T. Rama Rao held a meeting to review with party leaders the strategy for the municipal elections.

Sources in the party revealed that Mr Rama Rao told party leaders to gear up the cadres in urban areas where elections will be held in the coming weeks.

Party workers must work hard to ensure that a majority of the municipalities and corporations stay with the TRS, and the BJP does not get to settle in any of the urban local bodies, he said.

In view of the victory of the BJP in Adilabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar in the Lok Sabha elections, TRS leaders are of the opinion that the BJP will concentrate on the Nizamabad and Karimnagar Munic-ipal Corporations and try to corner the ruling party in both corporations.

The BJP will be eyeing the Bhainsa, Nirmal Adilabad, Asifabad, Kamareddy, Mahbubnagar, Sircilla, Huzurabad and Peddapally municipalities, as several Congress leaders, including former MPs and ministers, who had a grip on the erstwhile districts of Karimnagar, Mahbub-nagar and Adilabad, have joined the BJP after the recent elections.

Sources disclosed that Mr Rama Rao told party leaders not to worry about the statements and claims of the BJP, as the people of the state have confidence in Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and are happy with the welfare schemes of the government and they will certainly stand behind the TRS.

Mr Rama Rao told party leaders that the response of people in urban areas of the state to the party’s membership drive is an indication that people want the TRS to win in all ULBs.

While reviewing the ongoing membership, the working president said that the membership drive has received a tremendous response from the people and so far 40 lakh new members have been enrolled and already digitalisation of the details of 20 lakh members has been completed. The membership will cross the 60 lakh target, he said.

Mr Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, general secretary of the party told media persons that Mr Rama Rao has asked the party in- charges to take steps to constitute the party committees wherever the enrolment of members was completed.

He said that the party has received Rs15 crore as membership fee and the Gajwel constituency stood first with 70,000 membership.

BJP MPs say TRS harassing workers

Two BJP MPs on Friday alleged that the state government was booking false cases against party workers and the people who have voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.

BJP MPs Dharmapuri Arvind (Nizamabad) and Bandi Sanjay (Karim-nagar) talking to mediapersons in the national capital said, “The Korutla Police has arrested G. Bramaiah, president of Yousufnagar of Korutla mandal, for his post on social media during the Lok Sabha election that he had intelligence inputs of winning the BJP winning eight seats.”

They alleged that the police detained him and seized his passport. Bramaiah works in Gulf and when he returned home the police took him into custody.

The MPs demand that the police and the state government immediately withdraw the case against Bramaiah and release his passport.

The BJP MPs alleged that the police had been working with a partisan attitude and state government was curbing the people’s freedom of expression.