A day after Speaker allowed their group’s merger with TRS, rebel rebel TDP MLAs Arikepudi Gandhi and Maganti Gopinath joined the ruling TRS. Their formal joining of the party took place today after speaker allotted them the seat along with TRS members in Assembly yesterday.
Gandhi announced today that he had joined the TRS in the presence of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Yesterday both Gandhi and Gopinath simply requested the speaker to treat them as the members of rebel TDP MLAs who were seeking chair’s permission to merge with TRS.
There appears to be substance in the charge of opposition leaders that a speaker, who could not take a decision on Congress and TDP petitions, took the decision on a simple letter of Gandhi and Gopinath and announced that they were TRS members and allotted separate seats even before they formally joined the TRS. BJP floor leader Lakshman strongly condemned the culture of “Aaya Ram and Gaya Rams”. IT minister K Taraka Ramarao, however, admonished all for commenting on the speaker’s decision. ” Speaker ruling are to be followed, not to be questioned,” he said.
The CM KCR today offered Gandhi the pink kanduva which is formalization of his joining TRS. Later, with the Kanduva, he came to the media point and said explained the reasons from his quitting the TDP. He said he had worked for the TDP with all commitment and continue to work for the constituency in future as well. ” I apologize if my decision had hurt anybody,” he said. He announced with pride that CM KCR had assured him a lot and he was hopeful doing many things to the constituency. ” There was nothing except the development of the constituency behind his decision to quit TDP and join the TRS,” he said. He said it was also the aspiration of the people of my constituency Serilingampalli. ” I will take the support of all TRS leaders and work for development of consituency,” he said.
The other member, Maganti Gopinath, who represents the Jubilee Hills constituency of Hyderabad also echoed similar sentiments. Gopinath said though he loved TDP , he had joined the TRS under some compulsive conditions. ” I am attracted by the chief minister KCR’s efforts to build Bangaru Telangana. I would also like to become a member in the building of Bangaru Telanana and in making Hyderabad a truly global city,” he said.
