As the elections to the Telangana state assembly are fast approaching, it looks like irrigation minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s nephew T Harish Rao is going through a toughest phase.
According to the latest reports from within the party, secret efforts from the top bosses have begun to fog Harish Rao out from the party on one pretext or the other.
Even if he is not directly sacked from the TRS, there have been efforts to sideline him completely and make him a non-entity, so that Harish himself would leave the party.
As part of the strategy, sources said strict instructions have been given to KCR’s media entities – Namasthe Telangana Telugu daily, Telangana Today English daily and T-News channel to ban any kind of news pertaining to Harish Rao.
“Except if it is the news pertaining to Kaleshwaram project or other irrigation schemes, there should be no coverage to the political news of Harish Rao. If it is so important, it can be given some coverage in the local tabloid editions,” the TRS bosses reportedly told the editorial team of these media entities.
That KCR media has started banning Harish Rao was evident from the way they grossly underplayed his statement made the other day that he felt like retiring from politics after seeing the overwhelming affection of the people of his constituency.
His statement, which was played up by all the other parties, triggered so much uproar in the party that KCR reportedly directed Harish to take back the statement and give an explanation.
The witch-hunting of Harish Rao began soon after the successful conduct of the public meeting at Husnabad on September 8 under his leadership.
It got much more response from the crowds than the so-called massive public meeting at Kongara Kalan on September 2.
Apparently, KCR’s son K T Rama Rao and his coterie have felt that if Harish Rao continues to get the prominence, he might emerge as an alternative leader, sources said.
