TRS chief to contest Siddipet byelection

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 27. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has unanimously decided to field its founder-president, Mr. K. Chandrasekhara Rao, from the Siddipet Assembly constituency where a byelection is due on September 20. The Assembly seat fell vacant after Mr. Rao resigned to spearhead a movement for separate Telangana.

This was stated at a press conference addressed by Mr. M. Narayana Reddy, chairman of the TRS Election Committee, Mr. D. Chinnamallaiah, chief coordinator, Mr. R. Papa Rao, MLA, Mr. S. Santosh Reddy and Mr. Rajeswara Rao, Nizamabad and Karimnagar Zilla Parishad chairmen respectively, and Dr. Vijayarama Rao, former MP.

They said it was a unanimous decision of the party and a resolution was adopted at a meeting of the newly elected ZPTC and MPTC members at Siddipet. They hoped that Mr. Rao would repeat his performance of getting elected for the fifth time, this time enabling the TRS to make its debut in the State Assembly. He would file his nomination papers at Siddipet on August 30.

Mr. Rao's re-election would help in bringing into focus the issue of Telangana not only in the State level but also at the national level forcing the National Democratic Alliance Government to take note of the wishes of the people of Telangana, they added.

The TRS leaders said they were confident of Mr. Rao's victory since in the recent panchayat elections, TRS candidates bagged a majority of ZPTC, MPTC and panchayat seats. In terms of votes, the TRS got 55,000 more than its nearest rival, Congress, leaving the Siddipet municipality.

At the two-day meeting of the party's ZPTC and MPTC members, a number of resolutions were adopted. The one on drought spoke of its severity in Telangana and how crops had dried up. The meeting urged the Government to stop recovery of crop loans and collection of power bills.

By another resolution, it demanded transfer of 29 powers retained by the Government to the panchayat bodies and threatened that it would go to court if it was not conceded. On implementation of the G.O. 610 on repatriation of 60,000 non- local employees from Telangana, they would not hesitate to approach the President.

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Section  : Southern States
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