The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : TRS, Congress workers cross over to BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 05, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

TRS, Congress workers cross over to BJP

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, APRIL 4. Nearly 150 party workers from the city units of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and Congress joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday in the presence of the senior BJP leader and Secunderabad Lok Sabha candidate, Bandaru Dattatreya and the State general secretary, G. Kishan Reddy.

The new entrants included city functionaries of the TRS, who held key positions in the party before the dismantling of panels. They included the general secretaries, Ajay Singh and Nagesh Goud, the vice presidents -- D. Anilkumar Mudiraj, Neelakantam Raju and Bajrang Lal -- and the joint secretary Maheshwar Rao. From Congress too, divisional-level cadres led by Raju Singh and Kishore Singh joined hands with the BJP.

Speaking to reporters after a party meeting, which welcomed the newcomers at Rajashri Gardens in Nallakunta, Mr. Dattatreya said there was a clear lead for the BJP-TDP combine right from the campaigning phase, while other parties were still in the throes of mutiny and unable to focus on their campaigns. Surveys conducted by various media houses had also predicted a victory for the BJP-TDP alliance in Andhra Pradesh and the NDA at the Centre, he said.

Mr. Dattatreya said arrangements were in place for the Formation Day celebrations of BJP on April 6. The Union Minister for Shipping, Shatrughan Sinha, would attend the celebrations and officially inaugurate the campaign. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, would continue his programmes in the State with meetings scheduled at Visakhapatnam on April 6 and Rajahmundry on April 7.

Mr. Dattatreya, while reiterating Mr. Vajpayee's invitation to the People's War to contest the elections and join the mainstream, also ridiculed the dissidence in Congress and TRS and the troubleshooting efforts of the party's national leaders. He said there was no confusion over the Poddutur seat. The seat would have a BJP candidate, he asserted.

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