HYDERABAD: The TRS on Friday announced its support to Margaret Alva, the joint Opposition candidate for Vice President, a day ahead of polling on Saturday.
TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao asked 16 party MPs, nine in the Lok Sabha and six in the Rajya Sabha, to vote for Alva. The TRS had stayed away from the meeting of non-BJP parties held in Delhi last month to finalise the candidate. This triggered speculation that the TRS would abstain from voting as it was against the selection of a Congress leader.
However, Chandrashekar Rao took the decision to support Margaret Alva just a day before polling.
This fuelled a debate in political circles over the TRS getting closer to the Congress. Political observers say that Rao has sent a signal that the TRS has no qualms in working with the Congress to fight against the BJP.
The BJP has emerged as a major political force in Telangana and has been challenging the political supremacy of the TRS especially after the GHMC elections and Huzurabad and Dubbak Assembly bypolls. The TRS and the BJP are heading for another electoral battle in Munugode.
The TRS which maintained distance from the Congress since 2014 has been adopting a soft approach towards it since the recent Presidential election. It supported the joint Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, who was also supported by the Congress, on the ground that Sinha was never associated with the Congress.
In the case of the Vice President election, the TRS went one step ahead and extended support to Alva, a Congress leader.
Nama Nageswara Rao and K. Keshava Rao, TRS floor leaders in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, recently attended a meeting convened by Congress senior leader and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in his chambers in Parliament for the first time to discuss on launching a joint fight against the BJP-led NDA government over the issue of misusing investigation agencies like CBI, ED and I-T to target Opposition leaders.
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