Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party seems to be conservative on ‘Operation Akarsh’ ahead of MLC elections, scheduled on March 12 in the State. According to the revised strategy, TRS prefers cross voting rather than taking MLAs from Congress and TDP into party fold. Sources say that those MLAs, who want to join TRS, told to vote for TRS candidates and wait till MLC elections are over. This will trigger cross-voting in the MLC elections.

With the strength of 90 MLAs in addition to seven AIMIM MLAs, in the 119-seat Telangana Assembly, TRS aims to bag five MLCs. It has allocated one MLC seat to its friendly party AIMIM.

Two Congress MLAs — Atram Sakku (Asifabad), and Rega Kanta Rao (Pnapaka)– and one TDP MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah from Sathupalli met TRS supremo K Chandrashekhar Rao last week and spoke positively about TRS party. This has almost confirmed their move towards the pink party. The two Congress MLAs have further clarified that they’re willing to contest on TRS ticket in case the situation demands.

With the support of three MLAs, the total tally of TRS-AIMIM combine rose to 100 as against its requirement of 105 MLAs to get five MLCs. To bridge the gap, TRS is in the process of luring eight more MLAs from Congress party. With one lone MLA, Raja Singh, in Telangana, BJP has decided to refrain from MLC elections without supporting any party.