TRS in a bind over district panels

Hyderabad: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi is in dilemma over constituting district committees, and according to sources in the party, it might give a shocker to aspirants in districts as Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is reportedly not keen on "having two power centres".

Ever since the party announced and taken up the task of forming committees right from village-level to State-level, the issue of whether or not the party would have district presidents has become a topic of discussion among party men. It is learnt that the some of the leaders even lobbied for district posts by suggesting the names of their followers so that they do not face any opposition in future. However, the party has been maintaining suspense over forming of district committees. When the TRS working president, KT Rama Rao, was asked about it, he said that the issue would be taken up after the election of new president to the party.

According to sources, the party is thinking of avoiding forming district committees. Sources said that in a recent meeting with party leaders, the Chief Minister reportedly said that he does not want another power centre in the district as the party believes that district presidents might turn into possible threats to the party by involving in groupism.

The MLAs and in-charges (in constituencies where the party lost the election) have upper hand in the TRS party. They attend all the programmes including government programmes like distribution of cheques to beneficiaries or insurance cheques to the families of deceased workers of the party.

Meanwhile, the party wants to maintain silence on the issue, because if it was announced now, the leaders in the districts would get discouraged. The party wants to maintain the silence till November 15 by the time when the Plenary and Vijaya Garjana would be over. Sources said that in the present political scenario, the party might not make any announcements on the issue of constituting district committees.