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Amid rumours of KTR taking over as Telangana CM, KCR calls party meet on Sunday
A senior leader of the TRS, on condition of anonymity, said there is every possibility that the topic of KTR replacing his father as the chief minister might come up for discussion at Sunday’s state executive committee meeting.
An extended state executive committee of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi has been convened in Hyderabad on Sunday amid intense speculation that party president K Chandrasekhar Rao will step down soon and anoint his son K T Rama Rao as the next chief minister of Telangana.
An official statement from the party on Friday said the meeting would be held at 2 pm on Sunday at Telangana Bhavan, the state headquarters of the TRS, under the leadership of KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known.
Apart from the state executive committee members, the meeting would also be attended by all the cabinet colleagues of KCR, MPs, MLAs and MLCs, state-level corporation chairpersons, Zilla Parishad chairpersons, mayors, municipal chairpersons, district cooperative central bank chairpersons and district cooperative marketing society presidents.
The meeting will discuss issues like membership renewal, appointment of party committees from village-level to the state-level and election of party president etc. “Besides, arrangements to be made for the conduct of the party’s annual plenary on April 27 and other institutional issues will also be discussed at length,” the party statement said.
The sudden decision of the TRS president to convene the state executive committee meeting and invite all major party functionaries comes at a time when party leaders have been openly talking about KTR becoming the next chief minister of the state.
For the last few days, several party leaders including ministers and MLAs have been pitching for KTR, presently the working president of the TRS, taking over as the next chief minister. They said KTR had all the qualities of becoming the CM.
While assembly deputy speaker T Padma Rao described KTR as “chief minister-in-waiting” and extended advance congratulations to him on a public platform, state health minister Eatala Rajender said in an interview to a local television channel that KTR would definitely become the CM soon and he had already been discharging 90 per cent of his father’s responsibilities.
A senior leader of the TRS, on condition of anonymity, said there is every possibility that the topic of KTR replacing his father as the chief minister might come up for discussion at Sunday’s state executive committee meeting.
“It could be a strategy of KCR to see that the issue is raised at the meeting and he would seek their opinions before taking a decision on announcing KTR as his successor, so that the entire transfer of power from father to son appears to be a democratic process,” the leader said.
The executive committee meeting might also discuss revamping of the party organisational structure so as to entrust new responsibility in the party to KCR’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha, who got elected as legislative council member recently, and nephew T Harish Rao.
However, there is still uncertainty over the timing of KCR stepping down in favour of his son as the chief minister. The party leaders are planning to celebrate KCR’s 67th birthday on February 17 in a big way, including carrying out a massive “homam” with 10,000 invitees at Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad.
“There is talk in the party that he might hand over the reins to his son the following day. But there is also talk that he will resign in favour of KTR at the TRS plenary to be held on April 27,” the party leader quoted above said.
