Hyderabad: The TRS leadership is worrying about squabbles between Congress legislators who defected to the party and the party old-timers.
The party leaders are upset that the responsibility of selecting candidates for the local bodies has been entrusted to defectors, who are giving priority to their supporters and denying opportunities to those who have been with the party all along.
It may be recalled that as many as 11 MLAs from the Congress have defected to the ruling party.
Sensing trouble, TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao in his address to party leaders and cadres on the party’s foundation day, on April 27, cautioned party leaders not to indulge in street fights.
After elections to Mandal and Zilla Parishads were notified, party chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao had announced that the local MLAs and ministers of districts concerned will select the candidates who will contest the elections to Mandal Parishad and Zilla Parishad territorial constituencies.
With this decision, the Congress MLAs who have defected to the TRS took the responsibility of selecting candidates and issuing the B Forms to them.
Sources in the party disclosed that this has upset party leaders who have been associated with the party since a long time and also the candidates who were defeated in the December 2018 assembly elections.
One of these defeated MLAs said on condition of anonymity that during election time he had promised party tickets to several lower rung leaders for Zilla and Mandal Parishad elections, but due to the entry of the Congress-men, he and others like him are unable to get party rickets for their close followers.
He said that this kind of situation is being faced by all the defeated MLAs of the party, as the Congress MLAs have taken pole position in the ruling party. He said that party cadres are mounting pressure on them for tickets and are raising a hue and cry because the new entrants in the party are getting priority.
Another defeated MLA disclosed that the unrest among the party cadre on account of the new entrants has been brought to the notice of the party working president.
He said the working president is trying to pacify some of the leaders who want the MPTC and ZPTC seats by telling them they will be suitably rewarded in the future. He said the party working president has been advising party workers not to give the Opposition an opportunity to pounce upon the government, but if anything goes wrong, the workers are worried about their position in the party in view of the influence of the Congress MLAs.
