ADILABAD: BRS legislator Ajmeera Rekha Naik of Khanapur, who waited for last-minute changes in the party candidates list, and having lost all patience, is now lobbying for a Congress ticket from the same constituency. Reportedly this comes after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao ruled out making any changes to the list that has been announced.
It may be recalled that IT minister and party working president K. T. Rama Rao has been interacting with disgruntled leaders and pacifying them. However, there were no such negotiations with Rekha Naik.
It seems that the party's high command has taken a serious view of Rekha applying for a Congress ticket without resigning from BRS. She went to Delhi and met some Congress leaders to push her candidature for the Khanapur seat. Her husband Shyam Naik is already with Congress. He was aspiring for a ticket from Asifabad.
Many BRS leaders, who were denied party tickets, had pinned hopes on eleventh-hour changes in the names of candidates by the high command, which now seems unlikely.
Meanwhile, trouble is brewing for the Naik couple in Congress. Many in the party are citing the Udaipur declaration, which is against giving two tickets to a single family.
The party’s district women wing president Charutlatha Rathod and state vice-president of the tribal wing Bharath Chowhan, who applied for tickets, also camped in Delhi to push their candidatures.
TPCC general secretary Vedma Bojju, who has also applied for the party ticket from Khanapur, said that he was confident that people wanted his leadership and it was already reflected in the party surveys.
