Two Congress MLAs, Jupally Krishna Rao and T. Rajaiah, and an independent MLA, Somarapu Satyanarayana, who is also an associate member of that party in the Assembly, on Sunday joined the Telangana Rashtra Samiti in the presence of its president K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Admitting them into the TRS, Mr Rao said this was only the beginning and many more would join his party. With this the strength of the TRS has gone up to 17, including 12 who got elected on the party ticket. Two TDP MLAs, Gampa Govardhan and Jogi Ramanna, too had crossed over recently.
Challenges Naidu
Mr. Rao hurled a challenge at the Leader of Opposition, Chandrababu Naidu, to move a no confidence motion in the House and pull down the government. Saying that he would extend support to the move, he asked Mr. Naidu to accept the challenge to prove the point that the TDP did not collude with the Congress.
Contrary to the claim of Mr. Naidu that the TRS had colluded with the Congress, Mr. Rao said it was recently seen in the elections to Banswada Assembly constituency and municipal councils in three Rayalaseema districts that the votes of the TDP were transferred to the Congress. The claim of the TDP that the TRS will merge with the Congress proved false after Sunday's entry of MLAs. “It only shows that the Congress would merge with the TRS.”
Major force
Mr. Rao denied any possibility of TRS joining hands with other parties and said it will emerge as a major force that will sweep the next elections and achieve Telangana.
He warned the Telangana MLAs of the TDP to quit the party or they would rot there. Their continuance in the TDP was all the more humiliating because Mr. Naidu demanded construction of Polavaram project which was harmful to Telangana.
