It looks like former minister and senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi legislator T Harish Rao is fading out of the party gradually.
At a time when the TRS leadership has stepped up its campaign for the Lok Sabha elections with an objective of capturing 16 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, Harish is nowhere to be seen in the campaign.
What is worse, Harish does not figure in the list of 20 star campaigners for the Lok Sabha elections announced by TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday.
The list includes KCR, his son and TRS working president K T Rama Rao, secretary general K Kesava Rao, MLC Seri Subhash Reddy and five other secretaries.
It clearly indicates that KCR has deliberately chosen to sideline Harish in the party, notwithstanding the fact that the latter has played tremendous role in the party’s victory in the assembly elections.
The TRS chief knows that Harish has complete control over the party in Medak, Zaheerabad and parts of Karimnagar parliamentary constituencies and his campaign would fetch a big victory for the party.
But the TRS chief does not want Harish to retain his hold since he fears the latter had the potential to split the party in case such a situation arises.
So, KCR wants to clip Harish’s wings and confine himself to Siddipet constituency. Even in Siddipet, the local leaders have been clearly told that they should come to KTR for any work, instead of going to Harish Rao.
It would be interesting to see whether Harish would lie low or make any attempt to revolt in future.