Farmers Movement Archive

In a 1st after BJP’s rise in Centre, TRS at opposition meet

HYDERABAD: In a first in the last seven years, TRS attended a meeting of opposition parties in Parliament on Tuesday. The meeting was organised by Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha , to chalk out a combined strategy over suspension of 12 opposition MPs from RS, including six from the Congress, on Monday for the entire session. From the TRS, party RS floor leader K Keshava Rao took part in the meeting which was also attended by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and held at Kharge’s office. All these years since the BJP-led NDA came to power at the Centre in 2014, the TRS has supported the central government — both in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha — on various Bills and even elections to the post of President and vice-president. But the strain on relations between the TRS and BJP began to show soon after the pink party lost the Dubbak bypoll to the saffron outfit. Since the loss in Huzurabad bypoll to BJP, TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has changed tack, launching into a fierce attack against the BJP government at the Centre and PM on various issues, including the paddy row. There’s also no love lost between TRS and Congress at the state-level either, with many MLAs from the grand old party abandoning it for the former soon after winning in the assembly polls. On Tuesday, however, TRS leaders said that they attended the meeting of opposition parties — organised by Congress — to show solidarity and demand lifting of suspension of 12 MPs. “The suspended MPs are from TMC, Shiv Sena, CPI, CPM too and not just Congress,” a TRS MP said, explaining the party’s appearance at the meeting. Meanwhile, the TRS MPs continued their protest for the second day on Tuesday over the paddy procurement issue. MPs demanded that Centre bring a Bill for MSP, come up with uniform procurement policy and also pay Rs 25 lakh compensation to the kin of nearly 750 farmers who died in the past one year during the stir against the three farm laws (now repealed).

The Times of India

2021-12-01

Hyderabad