BJP, TRS both woo Rasamayi for Parkal

HYDERABAD: In a bid to bag Parkal, the lone Assembly seat in the Telangana region going to polls as part of the June 12 byelections, the BJP and TRS are vying to field singer-activist Rasamayi Balakishan as their official candidate. The popular balladeer, however, wants to be a consensual candidate for those political parties striving for a separate Telangana state.
Rasamyi has been at the forefront of the Telangana movement and it is BJP which is understood to have made the first move to woo him. Alarmed by BJP’s overtures, TRS is now making efforts of its own to win over Rasamayi to its fold.
Rasamayi, for his part, has asked the all-party Telangana Political Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) to convince BJP and TRS to put up a united candidate for Parkal.
“We are all fighting for Telangana; if I represent one party and face the other which is espousing the same cause, it would benefit opposition parties. Therefore I appeal to BJP and TRS to name me as their consensual candidate,” Rasamayi said.
However, Rasamayi’s views have put the three stakeholders in a dilemma. M Kodandaram, the T-JAC chairman, said: “We are not in a position to advise any political party, but we wish that there is a consensual candidate representing the pro-Telangana movement.”
The BJP has suggested that it is open to joining hands with TRS but leaders said that the final call on the Parkal candidate would be taken at the party’s co-ordination committee meeting, to be held on Tuesday.
“There are various options, including fielding Rasamayi as a consensual candidate of TRS and BJP. We will discuss the options at the co-ordination committee meeting,” said G Kishen Reddy, the BJP state president.
The TRS, however, has ruled out any possible truck with BJP for the bypolls. “The party has decided to go it alone in the bypolls. There is no possibility of joining hands with BJP,” said Dr Shrawan Dasoju, a TRS politburo member.