HYDERABAD: Come elections, it is time for party-hopping for politicos. They do it with gay abandon. The elections to 17th Lok Sabha are no exception. Their action did not seem to have bothered them about what their constituents would think of them. Ostrich-like, they did it, taking the people for granted.
As pathos of democracy kept plummeting inexorably, those who have lost, those who have won and those who want to go up the ladder by means fair or foul, did it without any qualms. They did not realise that their actions were indicative of their descent to despicable depths of political depravity.
Take for instance, Telugu Desam leader Nama Nageswara Rao in Khammam, an industrialist, who lost the Assembly election from Khammam on TDP ticket.
As Lok Sabha elections drew closer and as he was feeling like a fish out of water for being out of power for a long time, he managed to get TRS nomination for Lok Sabha election.
As he was with TDP till the other day, he falters now while campaigning. A video is doing the rounds on social media platforms, where campaigning in Khammam district, he urges his electors to vote for bicycle symbol, forgetting that he was contesting on car symbol which is the symbol of TRS.
As the MLAs, or MPs or those who had lost, look for quick gains, the ruling party whichever it is, has the advantage. At present the TRS is in an unassailable position in the State, having opened flood gates for the Aya Rams, though it has won the recent Assembly elections by bagging as many as 88 seats.
But the TRS does not seem to be satisfied with its performance, which by any standard was non-pariel. The party leadership seems bent on making Telangana Assembly Congress-mukt.
The party is alleged to be engineering defections from the grand old party. Though TDP won only two seats in Khammam, the TRS has already managed to spirit away one - Sandra Vekata Veeraiah of Sattupalli. The last man standing in TDP is Aswaraopet MLA M Nageswara Rao.
Though the TRS had gobbled up 10 MLAs from the Congress which had won 19 seats, it appears to be still hungry. It is moving around like a predator. The aim is to ensure that at least 13 of the Congress members, who constitute two-thirds of the strength of the Congress, cross the Rubicon and join forces with the TRS. This would help the merger of the Congress Legislature Party with the TRS and sidestep Anti Defection Act.
The 10 MLAs included former home minister Sabita Indra Reddy, who left the Congress after the party nominated Konda Visweswara Reddy for Chevella seat instead of her son. She joined the TRS but there too she could not get ticket for her son for Chevella but with a promise that he would be taken into the Council and that she would be considered for a berth in KCR’s cabinet at some point of time in future.
Ahead of Assembly elections, Visweswara Reddy, who is representing Chevella in the 16th Lok Sabha, left the TRS and joined the Congress, which appeared very unusual as he was leaving the ruling party for the opposition which at one point of time appeared to be giving a stiff challenge to the TRS but in the end collapsed like nine pins.
AP Jitender Reddy, who is the sitting TRS MP from Mahbubnagar, went back to his parent party-BJP after the TRS fielded another leader from Mahbubnagar. As far as the Congress is concerned, a notable defection included former MLA DK Aruna who is now in the BJP, contesting for Mahbubnagar seat.
Loser-turned-turncoats
Those who lost the elections too are changing their plumes. For instance, Borlakunta Venkatesh Nethakani, the Congress nominee who lost to TRS former MP Balka Suman in Asifabad Assembly seat in the recent elections, secured TRS ticket for Peddapalli Lok Sabha seat.
G Vivek, who expected TRS nomination, quit his post of advisor to the government and called KCR names for giving him a gentle brush off.