TRS leaders lure Etala followers

Mandal-level leaders vow support to party, to move out of Rajendar orbit

Finance minister T. Harish Rao and former MP B. Vinod Kumar have been successful in luring ousted health minister Etala Rajendar’s followers in his native Kamalapur mandal to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) fold.

Both the leaders held a meeting with mandal leaders and cadres in ministers' quarters in Hyderabad on Saturday and assured that the TRS leadership would stand by them.

Following this, the party’s Kamalapur mandal leaders expressed support to the TRS and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and vowed to work under the leadership of the latter. They said development of Huzurabad constituency and implementation of welfare schemes would be possible only under the leadership of Chandrashekar Rao.

Kamalapur mandal parishad president T. Srikanth, primary agriculture cooperative society chairman P. Sampath Rao, Karimnagar DCCB director P. Krishna Prasad, mandal Rythu Bandhu president Srinivas, party senior leader Kumaraswamy were among those who vowed to continue in the TRS. They said they were working with the TRS since its inception in 2001 and would continue to work under the leadership of Chandrashekar Rao.

While minister Gangula Kamalakar is in constant touch with party leaders in Kamalapur, Veenavanka, Jammikunta, and Huzurabad under the name of ‘Operation Gangula’ in the district since Rajendar was dismissed from the Cabinet on May 2. Chandrashekar Rao has appointed Harish Rao and Vinod Kumar recently as state-level in-charges to handle Huzurabad affairs.

Both the leaders have begun consultations with Rajendar’s supporters besides TRS local leaders and cadre in Huzurabad to ensure that they stick with the TRS.

Though the suspense continues over the resignation of Rajendar from the TRS and his resignation as an MLA, the strategies executed by the TRS leadership seem to be yielding good results. Several local TRS seniors who had waited for 20 days are now making their stance clear by holding press conferences to announce that they would not follow Rajendar and would stick to the TRS.

While Rajendar has stated that he will announce his future decision after the Covid pandemic subsides, several local leaders who previously supported him are abandoning him one by one.