Desam to gain from state crisis

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Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam is likely to gain substantially from the political turmoil in the coastal districts, particularly in the twin Godavari districts.
At least half-a-dozen Congress MLAs from East and West Godavari districts are in touch with Telugu Desam for the following reasons: Integrationist voters are upset with the Congress for the state’s bifurcation; The TD’s remarkable performance in the panchayat polls; no vacancies in YSR Congress, which has almost finalised its candidates.
Sources told this newspaper that there would be realignment in the political forces after the AP Assembly expressed its view on the state Reorganisation Bill which the Centre would be sending before placing the same before Parliament.
“For many legislators it will be like coming home to TD which they had left earlier to join the erstwhile Praja Rajyam,” a former minister and senior TD leader pointed out.
It is being rumoured that former minister K. Subbarayudu and Eli Nani, both from West Godavari, B. Satyanandam, T. Trimurtulu, V. Geeta and P. Gandhi Mohan, from East Godavari might switch over to the TD due to local equations. The name of MLA K. Kannababu is also doing the rounds but local caste equations have apparently put him in a dilemma.
All the above-mentioned MLAs are encouraging the ongoing agitations tacitly to retain their hold on the cadre and are apparently waiting for the righttime to switch. Also, the caste equations, which play vital roles, will bring the Kapu community back to the TD fold.
The Congress' attempts to woo the community projecting Chiranjeevi fell flat in the wake of the party's decision in favour of Telangana. After Sonia Gandhi, it was Chiranjeevi who wascriticised the most by the agitators including people from his own community.