TRS may hold plenary in January

Party to take up membership drive in 10 districts from February

Hyderabad: With big burden of maiden Telangana budget off his shoulders, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has shifted focus towards strengthening his party from grassroot level. Party plenary, membership drive and a host of other programmes are lined up in the coming weeks. In between, he is expected to expand his cabinet but there is no clarity within the party about the Muhurat for this event.

Chief Minister was engrossed in budget preparatory task for best part of his six months time in office and hence party activities took a back seat. The plenary was supposed to be held on October 11 and 12, but it was postponed owing to heavy rain forecast in Telangana. And afterwards, KCR could not find convenient dates for holding plenary because he was preoccupied with budget responsibility.

Now as all hurdles are cleared, plenary is likely to be organised in January, few days before or after Sankranthi festival. However, this is likely to be a one-day affair with just delegates attending the session. The public meeting, which initially was planned alongside plenary, is likely to be put off until Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) formation day i.e., April 27.

Meanwhile, few leaders close to KCR suggested him to combine plenary and formation day celebrations. If KCR agrees with their view, this event could be held for three days to culminate in a big public meeting on April 27.

With an aim to penetrate into grassroot level in each district, TRS is mulling to go on a massive membership drive in 10 districts from February onwards. This drive will be held for few weeks to form various district and state committees before TRS celebrates its formation day.

Meanwhile, KCR is learnt to have decided to hold Ayudha Chandi Yagam on a large scale in February with over 1000 priests at his farmhouse in Medak to seek divine blessings for development of Telangana. In between, the Chief Minister is set to expand his cabinet, which has been long overdue. Speculations are doing rounds that tentative date has been fixed for December 24. However, TRS leaders themselves have no clarity on this.

According to TRS sources, KCR is making arrangements for US visit in the coming weeks. For this purpose, he even applied for a diplomatic visa. It is learnt it KCR's visit will be considerable long with at least few weeks of stay in America.

Although rumors about KCR’s visit on health grounds are in the air, TRS sources maintain that this visit was purely for interacting with Telangana diaspora in US and their key role in developing native land besides taking a much needed break since KCR was busy on administrative front for the last six months.