HYDERABAD: With K Keshava Rao leaving the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and joining the Congress, former chief minister and party supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao is left with no second-in-command leader. This trend has been continuing since KCR launched the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now BRS) in 2001 for achieving statehood for Telangana.
It started with late Ale Narendra who joined the then TRS while he was BJP MP from the Medak constituency. He had served as the second-in-command in the pink party and fought for Telangana statehood before he was suspended from the party by KCR in 2007 for his alleged involvement in human trafficking.
Then came actor-turned-politician Vijayashanti. She served as an MP from Medak. She was the first secretary general of the TRS and in this position she was treated as second-in-command of the party. She was suspended from the party in 2013 and thus ended the tenure of another top leader in the pink party. It’s a different story that she later joined the Congress and contested from the Medak Assembly segment in 2014 and lost.
After Vijayashanti, Keshava Rao occupied the top place in the party. But the position again has fallen vacant as Keshava Rao has switched loyalty to the Congress.
Coincidentally, all the three left the party though in different circumstances they were MPs at the time when they broke their ties with the pink party.
The second-in-command position for inexplicable reasons did not prove good either for the leaders themselves nor the party itself.
Now, there is a debate in the party as to who will take the position next. Key leaders in the party are of the view that the post of secretary general is more ceremonial in nature carrying no decision-making power with KCR at the helm. According to party sources, KCR is unlikely to fill the post any time sooner.
Post to be vacant
Key party leaders are of the view that the post of secretary general is more ceremonial in nature carrying no decision-making power with KCR at the helm. According to party sources, KCR is unlikely to fill the post any time sooner.