JANGAON: Even as TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao is refusing to replace Ghanpur sitting MLA Thatikonda Rajaiah as party candidate for the upcoming Assembly polls, local TRS leaders and cadre continue to oppose his candidature at every given opportunity. They have been organising protest meetings in the constituency to send a strong message to the party leadership that if Rajaiah is not replaced they would vote against him and see that he is defeated in the polls.
To make matters worse, a few local leaders are also planning to hold a public meeting at Dharmasagar at the earliest to declare their own candidate from the constituency.
Recently, the local leaders met IT Minister KT Rama Rao in Hyderabad and asked him to urge party chief to replace Rajaiah. But the minister declined to do so and advised them to work for the victory of the party candidate. Highly disappointed party leaders returned to Ghanpur and started organising meetings to mobilise public opinion against Rajaiah. A large number of MPP and ZPTC members held a meeting and passed a resolution opposing the candidature of Rajaiah and want Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari or Rajarapu Pratap as party candidate.
The local leaders allege that Rajaiah has a very bad image among people of the constituency and making him party candidate means not honouring the opinion of majority of the voters of the constituency. An audio tape of a ‘romantic’ conversation, allegedly between Rajaiah and a woman, which had gone viral on social media a few days ago has further damaged his image.