TRS on shaky ground ahead of bypolls in 6 assembly seats
PTI | 04:01 PM,Jan 31,2012Hyderabad, Jan 31 (PTI) The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) appears to be on a shaky ground in the run-up to the impending by-elections to six assembly seats in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. Contrary to expectations that it would ride high on the so-called 'Telangana sentiment' in the by-polls, the TRS may have lost a lot of ground in the last few months after the statehood movement remained paralysed, obervers say. Adding to its woes is the strong antagonism being faced by at least two of its probable candidates in their respective segments where by-elections are due. Gampa Govardhan of Kamareddy in Nizamabad district and T Rajaiah of Station Ghanpur in Warangal district, who resigned from their assembly seats after switching over to TRS from Telugu Desam and Congress respectively, are said to be facing rough weather in their constituencies for "personal" reasons. This is causing anxiety in the TRS which cannot field alternative candidates as it has to keep the promise of fielding the incumbents who "sacrificed" their posts for the cause of Telangana state. "If we can't win these seats, a fresh campaign will be launched by the opponents (of a separate state) that the Telangana issue has died down. But the ground situation is different," a member of the TRS politburo pointed out. In Mahbubnagar constituency too the TRS is caught in an awkward position. It wants to field Telangana Employees' Joint Action Committee leader Srinivas Goud as its candidate but is wary of the sympathy factor for late MLA Rajeshwar Reddy's wife, who is expected to contest as an independent candidate. In fact, the TRS desperately sought to make her its candidate but she refused, party sources said. In Nagarkurnool in Mahbubnagar district, the TRS will have to support former TDP MLA Nagam Janardhan Reddy, who too quit his post on the statehood demand. Nagam's refusal to join TRS or any other party has come as a dampener to the separatist outfit. That leaves only two out of six seats -- Adilabad and Kollapur -- for the TRS to fancy a chance. MORE PTI DBV SC
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