Friends turn bitter foes in Warangal

warangal: till 1991 they were friends who cooperated with each other in politics. then they parted ways and have now turned bitter rivals in warangal politics.this is the tale of konda muralidhar rao and government whip errabelli dayakar rao. muralidhar rao, a congress leader and husband of konda surekha the congress mla from shayampet constituency in warangal district, was a supporter of the radical students union (rsu) during his student days.he joined politics at the instance of dayakar rao in 1983 when the telugu desam party was born. muralidhar rao was an aide of dayakar rao (tdp) during his first election campaign in 1983 in wardhannapet constituency as a tdp nominee. during the sarpanch elections in 1987, villagers of vanchanagiri say, muralidhar rao gunned down his pet dog and told the villagers that they would meet the same fate if anyone contested against him.the next few years saw muralidhar rao's dissociation with tdp but he remained a follower of dayakar rao till 1990. during that period he won the chairmanship of the single window cooperative society when dayakar rao was the dccb chief in warangal. in 1991, muralidhar rao joined the then municipal administration minister madati narasimha reddy, who has reportedly helped him come out of a weapons deal controversy. from then on the muralidhar rao and dayakar rao became foes in district politics. in 1995, muralidhar rao's wife surekha entered politics and became the mandal president of geesukonda. the rivalry between dayakar rao and muralidhar rao reached alarming proportions during the last six years and about six local activists were said to have become victims in the tussle.