Party elections deepen differences in pink party

Hyderabad: The efforts of the ruling TRS to strengthen the party from grassroot level by constituting village, mandal and district level committees have run into trouble with groupism dominating organisational elections.

Those who have been in the party during the struggle for separate Telangana are unhappy that they were being ignored by the party leadership and those who entered after the party came to power were walking away with plum positions. In fact, majority of the party flag-bearers have been hoping for nominated posts but are disappointed that so far the government has not moved in that direction. They are not showing keen interest in the party posts.

The local MLAs are calling the shots in constitution of these committees. Legislators, particularly those who joined the party just before elections are fielding their loyalists for key posts like president and secretary in the general body. And, this has not gone well with local leaders associated with the party for more than a decade. As a result, consensus could not be achieved in such mandals.

This problem is noticed in all the districts. In a few districts, contending groups literally came to blows. For example in Mahabubnagar district, Amangal, Madgul and Hanwada are some of the few mandals which witnessed severe competition. With no group from Amangal mandal in a mood to relent, a free-for-all situation was seen with activists throwing chairs at each other during a meeting held recently.

Even Nizamabad, which made a clean sweep in general elections with party bagging all the assembly and parliamentary seats, was not an exception. Rivalry came to the fore in elections to Nizamabad (urban) and Kamareddy mandals to name a few.

When asked about the internal bickering, TRS leaders observed that it proved that TRS is the most sought after party in the state. Not only a staggering 50 lakh people enrolled as members, but there is a stiff competition to grab the internal posts. A key TRS leader pointed out that district in-charges, local MLA and MP are sorting out matters where there are issues. Almost 90 per cent of mandal committees in nine districts were formed as on Wednesday, they said.