The meeting of 12 Congress MLAs with Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy to seek merger of Congress Legislature Party with Telangana Rashtra Samiti Legislature Party is being viewed as an attempt to stifle the voice of Opposition.
Though the Telugu Desam Legislature Party had also merged with the ruling party in the previous term of the government, the TRS attached more significance to Congress legislators shifting to its side now because the anti-incumbency factor was always found to be higher in the second and subsequent terms of any government. Apparently, the government will not want to be targeted by the Opposition parties in these circumstances, sources said.
This was precisely the reason, sources added, that the TRS encouraged defections into the party even after winning the Assembly elections with 88 MLAs in a House of 119. Even defeated candidates of the Congress, like former MLA Bixamaiah Goud, were allowed to join the TRS.
They added that the merger was also aimed to ready the pitch for TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao to step into the shoes of his father and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in the government. This was in the backdrop of a perceived threat to Mr. Rama Rao’s position from former Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao.
In all the defections and the recent victory of TRS in the Legislative Council and local body elections, Mr. Rama Rao was the visible face of the party to make it happen. He also hosted a lunch for the Congress MLAs who met him at the Chief Minister’s Camp Office on Thursday. TRS MLCs Palla Rajeswara Reddy, K. Naveen Rao and Mr. Pochampalli Srinivas Reddy were also present.
Cabinet expansion
Sources said another positive outcome of Thursday’s development was it has given the TRS option to induct into the Cabinet MLAs who won on Congress ticket. Notable among them are former Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy from the women’s quota. The flak that the TRS drew in the previous government when a Telugu Desam MLA T. Srinivas Yadav was made a Minister would be overcome. Also, they can support the TRS candidates in elections of co-opted members in municipalities, Mandal and Zilla Parishads in their respective constituencies.
The merger could not have come at a better time because the TRS had recovered from the setback that it received in Parliament elections by bouncing back in Mandal and Zilla Parishad polls. But, the TRS leaders viewed the result of latter elections as a natural outcome given the party’s strength in local politics. Mr. Rama Rao was credited with this victory too.
MLAs who remain
The MLAs who won on the Congress ticket in the December 2018 election and are continuing to be in the party after 12 of their colleagues defected to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Thursday are.
1. Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka
2. D. Sridhar Babu
3. T. Jayaprakash Reddy (Jagga Reddy)
4. Podem Veeraiah
5. D. Anasuya (Seetakka)
6. Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy
