In less than a week after party’s rout in GHMC elections, a Telugu Desam MLA from Telangana left the party and joined TRS. K P Vivekananda, MLA from Quthbullapur Assembly constituency in Ranga Reddy district, today quit the party to join TRS. He has faxed his resignation to the party office.
He called on chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at camp office and joined the pink party. He recited the same old song of defectors that he was convinced by the welfare activities of the TRS. ” Having seen the mandate people gave to TRS, I am compelled to take the decision to work under the leadership of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao,” he told media. He is seventh MLA to join TRS from TDP.
Compelling reason for this hasty switch over is the defeat of TDP in the divisions of his constituency Quthbullapur in GHMC elections.
An engineering graduate from the Osmania University, Vivek won the 2014 election defeating TRS candidate K Hanmantha Reddy with a huge margin of 40 thousand votes. Still, Vivek feels, TDP is not an ideal party to continue in Telangana. As TDP president Chandrababu Naidu is confined to Andhra Pradesh, the party, Vivek feels has no future here. According to Vivek, the TRS has won the confidence of the people and people also reposed faith in the leadership of KCR. This is the argument put forth by Vivek for quitting the party. Vivek is not alone. The all pervasive impression among the TDP leaders is that Naidu lost face in Hyderabad following his alleged involvement in cash-for-votes and he had to migrate to Vijayawada overnight even though there was nothing to run the government. The bonhomie is an attempt at face saving. As per our information, no MLA is sure of retaining his constituency in 2019 if he continued in TDP. The groundswell victory for TRS in Warangal and GHMC election has created a panic among the MLAs all opposition parties- more insecure are the MLA from TDP as the party is completely headless. Nara Lokesh’ s has failed to instill confidence in his leadership. The talk among the TTDP leaders is that barring one or two MLAs everybody is waiting for a right moment to switch over to TRS with the hope that TRS would field them as their candidate in 2019. Even though there is no guarantee of this, the MLAs feel at least they could make hay while TRS shines.
TTDP president L Ramana expressed dismay at the Vivek’s decision. He alleged that KCR was plotting to eliminate the opposition from Telangana.” There is no democracy in Telangana. It is unfortunate that Vivek is carried over by the empty talk of KCR,” he said.
