TDP, Congress Suffer As Sayanna, Prabhakar Join TRS

On the eve of elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, the Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Congress suffered yet more blows on Thursday with TDP senior leader and Secunderabad Cantonment MLA G Sayanna and Congress MLC S Prabhakar joining the ruling TRS in the presence of Party supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

Speaking to mediapersons later, Sayanna said that he was hugely attracted by the welfare and developmental programs launched by the TRS government, and so had decided to mount the "car".

He also said the Chief Minister had been making tireless efforts to make Hyderabad a city of world standards.

He was especially hypnotised by the Chief Minister's unique program of providing double bedroom houses for the poor and weaker sections in the State, he said.

Sayanna said that though there was nothing about the Telugu Desam Party that hurt him, he decided to join the ruling party in the interests of his constituency.

He said that he had always got full respect in the TDP, but that he was constrained to leave it for the development of the Secunderabad Cantonment. Sitting in an Opposition Party was not going to do any good to his constituency, Sayanna said.

KCR had played a key role in the reopening of the Army road in the Cantonment area, doing a commendable job of convincing the Defence authorities to postpone their decision to close the Allahabad Gate in the Cantonment area, Sayanna said.

"As I was made a member of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Board by the TDP president Chandrababu Naidu, I will not be writing any letters to the TTD Board hereafter," he added.

As part of Operation Attraction, Irrigation Minister Harish Rao is reportedly engineering the migration of long-time TDP leaders into the TRS. The TRS has already admitted four city TDP MLAs - Talasani Srinivas Yadav from Sanath Nagar, Teegala Krishna Reddy from Maheshwaram, Manchireddy Kishan Reddy from Ibrahimpatnam and Madhavaram Krishna Rao from Kukatpally - into the Party in a bid to strengthen the Party in Hyderabad. With the inclusion of Sayanna, a four-time MLA, the ruling Party will be able to make inroads into both the Cantonment area as well the SC voter base in the city.

Congress MLC S Prabhakar, who also defected to the ruling Party, said that he was humiliated by the Congress Party.

He complained that though he had repeatedly told the Party High Command as well as the State Party leaders to initiate measures to strengthen the Party in view of the upcoming GHMC elections, they had all remained passive.

Realizing then that it would not be good for him and his followers to remain in the Party, he opted to join the ruling TRS with the hope that Hyderabad would become a world city under the leadership of the Chief Minister, he said.

He also said that KCR had proved his mettle by ensuring uninterrupted quality power supply in the twin cities and building 400 double-bedroom houses for the poor within a short time.