TRS sees big exodus

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Hyderabad: Former minister and Telangana Rashtra Samiti politburo member Gunde Vijaya Rama Rao on Wednesday resigned from the party. Sources said that he might be joining the Congress soon.
Suspended TRS MP Vijayashanti, too, is set to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday and pave the way for her joining the party. “Yes, I have quit the party since TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao has found much bigger leaders. It will be inconvenient for him if I continue in the party. But I am happy Telangana has been achieved,” Dr Vijaya Rama Rao said.
Asked whether he would join the Congress, he said that talks were still at a preliminary stage. “If the Congress invites me to join, I will join,” he said. Dr Vijaya Rama Rao said his future looked bleak in the TRS.
He had sought the Warangal MP seat, the Ghanpur Assembly or at least the Gajwel Assembly seat, but Chandrasekhar Rao had turned him down on all three counts and had suggested the Secunderabad Cantonment seat “which I turned down”.
The Congress, meanwhile, seems to be in a tit-for-tat mood and is paying back the TRS chief in his same coin. Chandrasekhar Rao had poached senior Congress leaders like Dr K. Keshav Rao, Dr Manda Jagannadham and Dr Vivekanand, into the TRS’ party fold.
According to Congress sources, more TRS leaders are expected to join the party from Telangana region even while keeping the door open for a TRS-Congress merger. Dr Vijaya Rama Rao was one of the three leaders besides Dr A. Chandrasekhar and Chandulal, who had met AICC in-charge of Andhra Pradesh Digvijay Singh in New Delhi on Monday, giving rise to speculations that they would join the Congress soon.
Dr Chandrasekhar, however, dismissed media reports and said on Wednesday that he was in the TRS and denied joining the Congress. Dr Vijaya Rama Rao had called on Chandrasekhar Rao late on Tuesday and submitted his resignation.