HYDERABAD: Ministers in Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s Cabinet are heaving a sigh of relief following the landslide victory of TRS in the municipal polls. The victory means their ministerial berths are safe. Prior to the municipal elections, KCR had warned that ministers who fail in ensuring victory of the party candidates would be sacked.
TRS has won an overwhelming majority of the 120 municipalities and 10 municipal corporations. While ministers are happy, a former minister is said to be in trouble.
He is quite likely to face action for encouraging rebels to contest from Kollapur municipality.
MLAs are also in a jubilant mood, as the party boss had announced that they would be rewarded with nominated posts based on their performance in the municipal polls.
The TRS chief, during the party’s extensive executive meeting on January 4 to prepare party cadres and leaders for elections to urban local bodies, warned ministers that they would lose their berths in the cabinet if any of the municipalities or corporations in their respective districts were lost by the TRS.
Ministers were quite worried in the beginning as many of the ticket aspirants jumped into fray as rebels after they were denied tickets. They are now a relieved lot with the results being heavily in favour of the ruling party.
Initially, there was talk within the party that TRS would face a tough fight from Congress or BJP in Karimnagar, Medchal, Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Yadadri-Bhongir, Mahabubnagar and Suryapet districts. However, results went in favour of TRS in these districts too. Though initial trends during counting at Dharmapuri municipality showed that TRS could lose, the ruling party emerged victorious with a one-vote margin. The ex-officio vote enabled social welfare minister K. Eswar to breathe easier.
In Kollapur municipality, former minister Jupally Krishna Rao allegedly encouraged rebels to contest on tickets of All India Forward Bloc due to his dispute with sitting MLA B. Harshvardhan Reddy. Reddy had won the 2018 December assembly elections as a Congress candidate but later switched over the TRS. Since then, Jupally Krishna Rao’s group has been staying away from active politics in Kollapur constituency.
Sources in TRS disclosed that when party tickets were being issued, the sitting MLA denied tickets to members of the Jupally group, following which the ex-MLA encouraged rebels to contest from certain wards in the municipality. Following this, TRS won nine wards while the rebels won 11 seats. The TRS still manage to grab the council on the strength of ex-officio votes.
As a result, former minister Jupally may find himself on the crossroads. His close associates disclose that he will quit the party soon.
