With the commencement of the first session of the Telangana state assembly, a tense atmosphere prevailed in the opposition camp as to whether there would be any exodus of MLAs into the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
However, the Congress appeared to have remain united at least for the time being, as all the 19 newly elected MLAs attended the Congress Legislature Party meeting held in the assembly on Thursday in the presence of AICC observer K C Venugopal, indicating that nobody is going to join the TRS at least in the near future.
Though there were certain rumblings in the party over the election of CLP leader with half a dozen MLAs throwing their hat into the ring for the post, they finally left it to the party high command to select the CLP leader and said they would abide by whatever decision party president Rahul Gandhi will take.
However, the Telugu Desam Party having just two MLAs in the assembly seemed to be on the verge of disintegration.
Sattupalli MLA and senior TDP leader Sandra Venkata Veeraiah was conspicuous by his absence, when the party leaders were paying floral tributes to TDP founder president NT Rama Rao at NTR Ghat before leaving for assembly.
Aswaraopet MLA Mechha Nageswara Rao was the only MLA along with other Telangana TDP leaders who attended the programme organised at NTR Ghat.
When the party leaders contacted Sandra, he said he was not in a position to come to Hyderabad because of gram panchayat elections and there was no other intention on attending the programme.
But his absence led to the speculation that he will soon be going to join the TRS, as was being speculated for the last few weeks.
