Former minister Konda Surekha and her husband Murali, who was an MLC in the past, are all set to join the Telangana Rashtra Samiti soon.
Already, they have held several rounds of talks with TRS boss K Chandrasekhar Rao in this regard which has paved the way for their entry into the pink party and now it is only a matter of time before the couple formally announce their defection.
According to TRS sources, the party has offered the Warangal East Assembly seat to Surekha and an MLC seat to her husband.
But Surekha has reportedly sought the Parkal seat which she had narrowly lost to TRS candidate M Bikshapathi in the 2012 byelection, while her husband has asked for the Bhooopalpalle Assembly seat saying that he has a strong support base there.
Chandrasekhara Rao, however, is not inclined to offer Parkal to Surekha since the sitting MLA, M Bikshapathi, belongs to the TRS. The TRS boss is also not willing
to offer Bhoopalapalle to Murali as he wants to field party leader S Madhusudana Chary, who is close to him, from there.
Bhoopalpalle constituency is currently being represented in the Assembly by Gandra Venkataramana Reddy of the Congress, who had been the chief whip of the government till the Assembly was placed under suspended animation.
If Surekha accepts the offer of Warangal East, which is being represented now by former minister Basvaraju Saraiah, she will have to work hard because it is a new turf. Even then, she is expected to give a tough fight to him since both of them belong to backward classes.
The TRS, by offering Warangal East to Surkha, wants to use her image to wrest the Congress seat and do an encore in Bhoopalpalle by making Murali, who has a good support base in the constituency, campaign for the TRS candidate, who will most probably be Madhusudana Chary.
The Konda couple, who were staunch loyalists of the YSR family once, left the Congress when YS Jagan Mohan Reddy started his own party and joined him. But they left him following development of differences with him and rejoined the Congress. But as that party was not prepared to give her an Assembly ticket either for Parakal, her home constituency, or for any other constituency, they have decided to join the TRS now.
“Talks are going on with the Konda couple. They are seeking MLA ticket and MLC nomination. We hope they will join us,” a senior TRS leader said.