CPM To Support TRS In Munugode By-Election

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) has decided to extend support to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the upcoming by-election to Munugode Assembly constituency.

CPI-M Telangana unit secretary Thammineni Veerabhadram announced this today.

Veerabhadram said that the CPI-M had discussed the proposal of contesting the elections in alliance with the Communist Party of India (CPI), but had decided to extend support to the TRS finally, so as to be able to ensure the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He told reporters that the CPI-M welcomed Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's fight against the BJP.

He said that there was a need to check the BJP which was using institutions for its political interests. He alleged that the BJP was working to destabilise non-BJP State governments by resorting to horse-trading and threatening its political opponents with raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and other central agencies. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had ominously stated that if BJP won the Munugode seat, the TRS government too would be dethroned in a month. He asked the BJP how it could pull down a government which enjoyed an absolute majority, and claimed that the party was therefore almost certainly planning to do the same in Telangana as it did in some other States, and so the TRS needed all the support it could get.

He, however, clarified that the CPI-M's decision to support the TRS was limited to the Munugode by-election.

The decision by the CPI-M came nearly two weeks after the CPI too declared its support to the TRS. The CPI leaders had shared the dais with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at a public meeting organised by the TRS in the constituency on August 20.

The CPI had decided to extend unconditional support to the TRS as it believed that the ruling party had the firepower to defeat the BJP.

The Assembly seat fell vacant following the resignation of Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy. He also resigned from the Congress, and joined the BJP at a public meeting addressed by Amit Shah in the constituency on August 21.

The by-election is likely to be held towards the end of the current year.