CONG. BID TO PUT UP CANDIDATE AWAITED

No decision was taken on what stand the TRS should take and it was decided to hold further rounds of meetings after clarity emerges on the names of candidates of the NDA and the UPA and what stand majority of the regional parties adopt.

The meeting decided to wait for the outcome of the Congress' ongoing attempts to field a joint Opposition candidate and the meetings of Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge with leaders of regional parties Sharad Pawar, M.K. Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray, H.D. Deve Gowda, Mamata Banerjee etc.

Interestingly, Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Legislative Council chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy were learnt to have attended the meeting.

Assembly Chief Whip Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar, Lok Sabha members Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, Nama Nageswara Rao, Venkatesh Netha, Rajya Sabha members J. Santosh Kumar, V. Ravichandra and D. Damodar Rao, party whips in Assembly Guvvala Balaraju, Balka Suman besides MLC S. Madhusudhana Chary and former MP B. Vinod Kumar attended the meeting.

A majority of the leaders reportedly opined that the TRS should support the joint Opposition candidate to be fielded by regional parties and Left parties minus Congress and the TRS should not support a candidate proposed by the Congress.

In the event of regional parties supporting the Congress proposed candidate, the discussion on the TRS abstaining from voting came up for discussion. Iwas felt that if the TRS abstained from voting, it will benefit BJP-led NDA and invite criticism that the TRS and the BJP still continue to be 'secret allies' and defeat the very aim and purpose of Chandrashekar Rao declaring war against the BJP and forging an anti-BJP front for 2024 Lok Sabha polls.