HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is said to be searching for a 'strong candidate' who can be pitted against ousted health minister Etala Rajendar in the Huzurabad Assembly constituency. The seat has remained loyal to Rajendar since 2004, he has been elected six times in a row from Huzurabad.
As Rajendar was close to TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao since the inception of party in 2001 and was made minister after the TRS came to power in 2014 and continued in the until his recent ouster from the Cabinet on May 2, the party leadership never thought of an alternative to him in Huzurabad all these years. It did not encourage second-rung leadership as Rajendar was holding the Huzurabad fortress strongly.
However, the sudden political development has now forced the party leadership to scout for a strong leader who can match the strength and stature of Rajendar.
According to official sources in the TRS, the party leadership is not just looking for a strong candidate keeping in mind the upcoming bypoll in the event of Rajendar either resigning or being disqualified from the Assembly, but also looking at 2023 December Assembly polls which are just two-and-a-half years away to take on the former minister.
Chandrashekar Rao's visit to Rajya Sabha MP Capt. V. Laxmikantha Rao's residence in Warangal during his visit to MGM Hospital on Friday triggered speculations that the party chief was seriously considering to rope the veteran TRS leader’s wife Sarojini Devi, who was mandal parishad president (MPP) of Huzurabad earlier and had political confrontation with Rajendar in 2018 due to no-confidence motion moved against her. She had then accused Rajendar of conspiring with the Opposition parties to dethrone her although the motion had failed.
The Chief Minister was closeted at Capt. Laxmikantha Rao’s residence for nearly two hours with party leaders and reportedly discussed 'Operation Huzurabad'.
Capt. Laxmikantha Rao, 82, is known to be a close aide of Chandrashekar Rao since the inception of the TRS. The Chief Minister nominated him as Rajya Sabha member in 2016 and his term will end in 2022.
After the emergence of the TRS, Capt. Laxmikantha Rao twice represented Kamalapur constituency (now Huzurabad) as MLA and also served as a minister in the Congress coalition government of Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy between 2004 and 2005. After the formation of Telangana state, he made way for his son V. Sathish Kumar, who is now an MLA from the Husnabad constituency.
He is known to be 'financially strong' who runs a chain of engineering colleges such as KITS-Warangal, KITS-Singapuram, his native village in Karimnagar district, KITS-Ramtek (Maharashtra), Warangal Public School and Vijetha Public School in Hyderabad.
