Chief Minister designate K. Chandrasekhar Rao seems to be playing hard to get in the case of the two Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs-elect from Adilabad district who tried to meet him last week. A. Indrakaran Reddy elected from Nirmal and Koneru Konappa elected from Sirpur Assembly constituencies have drawn a blank despite a three-day wait for meeting the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) supremo in Hyderabad.
“KCR is asking us to join the TRS,” revealed a close aide of the two MLAs-elect. “This has been set as a precondition to any further talks on extending cooperation from the government,” he added on conditions of anonymity.
The BSP MLAs are seeking to be on the side of the ruling party headed by Mr. Rao so as to usher in development in their constituencies. They pretty well understand the ‘risks’ involved in aligning themselves with the opposition.
Mr. Reddy and Mr. Konappa could meet only Siddipet MLA-elect T. Harish Rao who is likely to play an important role in the Telangana government. They tried to meet the Chief Minister-designate through him but a meeting did not materialise.
The BSP MLAs-elect duo is said to be of the opinion that functioning merely as TRS legislators would be of no help to the cause of constituency development. “They may jump over into the pink party if one of them is given a Ministerial berth in the State Cabinet,” a source observed.
“It will be difficult to convince our constituents if we just jump onto the TRS bandwagon. A Ministerial berth nevertheless, will help us seek the concurrence of our electorate as it entails development,” the source elaborated.
“We cannot help but wait,” says the crestfallen aide. “We will however, continue to be positive in this regard and keep our options open,” he added.
