HYDERABAD: Infighting between senior leaders and those who have joined the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) recently across the state for securing tickets for their own cadres in the upcoming municipal elections is understood to be worrying the party high command. In a few Assembly constituencies, the fights have even led to a TRS leaders migrating to the Congress. A few leaders had even started fighting in front of the party’s top leaders. In a preparatory meeting conducted earlier this month, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had warned the old leaders and new comers in the party to work together and deliver results in the upcoming elections.
The situation turned awkward in Medchal constituency when sitting MLA Ch Malla Reddy and former MLA Malipedhi Sudheer Reddy recently started a verbal fight at a public meeting in the presence of finance minister T Harish Rao. Both leaders were already warned by the party top leaders against such behaviour in the past.
Sudheer Reddy said, “It is an open secret that there have been clashes between Malla Reddy and me. I want my cadres to get the tickets in the upcoming municipal elections. They have a huge public reputation, and if tickets are not given to them, the party would lose seats. Malla Reddy is discriminating against my cadre and we have complained about this to the party top leadership many times”He added that his cadre will wait for a good time if they are not given a chance to contest in the upcoming municipal elections.
The fight between the two started when D Sudheer Reddy was not given a ticket in the 2018 Assembly elections and it was instead given to Ch Malla Reddy, who was then the sitting MP of Malkajgiri. He had won the seat. Rivalry between the Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy and former MLA Teegala Krishna Reddy in the Maheshwaram Assembly constituency reached its peak when both the leaders were trying to seek tickets for their followers in the municipal polls.
“When Indra Reddy had migrated to our party from the Congress, none of her followers came with her. So, the cadres that existed in this constituency are purely mine. Therefore, the tickets should be given to the persons whom I recommend. If that does not happen, I will directly approach Chandrashekar Rao,” said Krishna Reddy.Tension escalated between the two since P Sabita Indra Reddy, who was in the Congress in the past, won against Krishna Reddy in the 2009 and 2018 Assembly elections. After winning the 2018 elections, she joined the TRS and became a minister.
In Kollapur Assembly constituency, rivalry between the sitting MLA Beeram Harshavardhan Reddy and former Minister Jupally Krishna Rao started when Beeram won on Congress tickets in earlier elections, while the latter contested from TRS. The situation worsened when Beeram joined TRS.