HYDERABAD: Loyalty of
TRS candidates not just to TRS president
K Chandrasekhar Rao but also to his son
Municipal administration minister
K T Rama Rao was a factor in the selection of TRS candidates for the forthcoming polls. Behind the scenes, KTR played a crucial role in the selection of candidates for the 2018 elections, it is learnt.
The 105 list of names announced by
TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for the next assembly polls are learnt to have been vetted by the CM's son.
According to sources, while KCR got independent feedback about all the candidates which he finally selected, KTR also critically scrutinised the names. For the last few months and weeks, it is KTR who was primarily engaged in identifying the candidates, check their background, popularity and also about their loyalty to the party leadership. TRS sources said this 'loyalty test' had to be conducted with the prospective candidates to ascertain and make sure that they would sail with the party in the post-election scenario if the elections threw up a hung house. Another thing that was factored in was that KTR, being the CM's son, was also seen as the future chief minister. That their candidature was being positively considered or finalised was conveyed to the TRS nominees by KTR as this also signalled that if they were to be loyal to anyone in the party, it would be to the chief minister and to him. While there is groupism in the TRS, it is only behind closed curtains. KCR not only managed to keep the party together but also got TDP and Congress MLAs and MLCs to join the party. Though the performance of the sitting MLAs through many of the surveys conducted was taken into account, the most important aspect that weighed in their favour was apart from the winning chances, the loyalty.
The green signal for some of the sitting MLAs was given some months ago so that they there would be no doubts about their renomination. With the word coming from KTR himself, the sitting legislators and also some of those who had lost in the last elections went ahead promoting themselves in their constituencies without waiting for even as much as KCR announcing the list formally.