Hyderabad: The Congress party finds this winter painting quite a gloomy and grim picture for it, both in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states, as one after another of its party leaders planning to cross the fence into TRS and TDP.

The party which claims and pats itself for the creation of a separate Telangana state sees nowhere in near future that it could recoup and make any gains. “The Telangana Congress had though that already an anti incumbency has set in the State against the ruling TRS government and wanted to ride on that to bag the Warangal Lok Sabha seat. But, all its hopes had gone awry,” pointed out a T Congress leader from the city. Now, the Congress leaders might be putting a brace face. However, they are not sure of even making any gains in the ensuing Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls scheduled in January, 2016. Not just that, till date, the TRS has been poaching its MLAs and senior leaders to crass the fence and join the ruling party.

Ahead of the GHMC elections, if the TRS uses the same trick to poaching the second run of Congress leaders in the city is what is bothering the party now. Fears within the party are not baseless, as the ruling party has already began its hunt to identify potential Congress and TDP leaders in the city to open its doors. The main reason is that the TRS has no strong base in several parts of the city, mainly in the localities which are predominantly having voters from Seemandhra, and Backward Classes. It was against this backdrop that the TRS is setting its eyes to poach the city leaders. This means Congress would lose its mass base in the city.

Also, in case of TDP, the TRS could poach only that party leaders and cadre in Telangana. It is a different story in case of Congress, as both the TRS and TDP have been poaching its leader left and right both in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, pointed out a TPCC leader from the city.