HYDERABAD
After the poll debacle, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leadership has one immediate and tough task on its hands – the selection of its Legislature Party leader who would be the Leader of the Opposition too in the third Assembly of Telangana.
Party president K. Chandrasekhar Rao had an informal meeting with the newly-elected MLAs and other senior leaders of the party in his Erravelli farmhouse on Monday and had a pep talk with them. The party is expected to hold its legislature party meeting soon, where the party president is likely to make a decision on the MLA who is going lead the party in the Assembly.
Sources in the party said that Mr. Rao would be entering the Assembly as a member of the opposition party first time after formation of Telangana and third time since he entered the portals of the Assembly in 1985. He was with the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1985 and as the member of the Opposition (TDP) in 1989 and as ruling TDP member in 1999.
He was elected as the first MLA of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) after formation of the party in 2001 after he quit the TDP early that year. He was elected to the Assembly as well as Lok Sabha in 2004 in alliance with Congress but he did not enter the Assembly as he preferred to be MP, later Union Minister, to pursue the issue of statehood to Telangana. He remained as an MP during 2009-14 too.
In 2014, he was again elected to the Assembly and Lok Sabha but he became first Chief Minister of Telangana and quit as MP. The party was led by G. Vijaya Rama Rao in 2004 and Eatala Rajender in 2009 in the Assembly.
Keeping flock together
“It’s a difficult question to answer whether he would prefer to be Leader of the Opposition (LoP), a Cabinet-rank position, or just remain as a member giving opportunity to another member. The chances of another member, not the kin, getting opportunity as LoP are high in the event he prefers against donning that role keeping in view the dynamics within the party”, a party source explained.
Another tough task for the party would be keep it flock together till the next Assembly elections. “The chances of poaching by the Congress would be high as the leader at the helm of affairs in that party would be in need of numbers to counter the threat of dissent from rivals within, as the BRS did to foil the attempts to destabilise the government with thin majority (63) by rivals parties in the first term (2014-18) and to further weaken the Opposition in the second term”, another source said.
