Hyderabad: Friday’s preparatory meeting of BRS for its corporators ahead of Saturday’s GHMC council meeting, yet again highlighted the stark uncertainty facing the main Opposition party, with more than half of its MLAs from the city skipping the event.
BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao was expected to attend the meeting but he went to Delhi to meet his sister and BRS MLC K. Kavitha at Tihar jail.
The BRS, which was left with 14 MLAs in the GHMC limits after its Khairatabad MLA D. Nagender’s departure to the Congress and the victory of the Congress candidate in the Secunderabad Cantonment bypoll, saw only seven of its legislators – including two MLCs – attending Friday’s meeting.
The five MLAs who attended the meeting were were former minister and Sanathnagar MLA Talasani Srinivas Yadav, who led the meeting, Maganti Gopinath (Jubilee Hills), D. Padma Rao Goud (Secunderabad), Muta Gopal (Musheerabad), D. Sudheer Reddy (LB Nagar), T. Prakash Goud (Rajendranagar) and Kaleru Venkatesh (Amberpet), along with former minister Md Mahmood Ali and MLC Surabhi Vani Devi.
The MLAs who did not attend were Gudem Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru), P. Sabitha Indra Reddy (Maheswaram), Madhavaram Krishna Rao (Kukatpally), Arekapudi Gandhi (Serilingampally), K.P. Vivekanand (Quthbullapur), Marri Rajasekhar Reddy (Malkajgiri) and Bandaru Laxma Reddy (Uppal).
The absence of seven of its MLAs at the meeting is being viewed as an indication that the party diktat is no longer working, and that more MLAs, who won on the BRS ticket, are making serious plans to join the Congress.
Saturday’s GHMC meeting, the first after mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi joined the Congress, is expected to see some political fireworks with BRS councillors targeting the mayor and the Congress government.
At Friday’s preparatory meeting, Srinivas said that the BRS corporators must question the absence of any development works in the city ever since the Congress came to power.
“People are facing multiple problems in the city because of the government not paying attention to the GHMC. The present government also cancelled many development works sanctioned by the BRS government. There are problems related to cleanliness and hygiene in the city, and many nalas are choked with garbage. All of these issues must be taken up,” Yadav said.
