TRS men perform 'coolie' work for organising party plenary

HYDERABAD: Agriculture and other manual work besides making tea/coffee are some of the "coolie" jobs being "symbolically" performed by ruling TRS leaders in Telangana to collect money for organising the party plenary and a public meeting scheduled this month.

Earlier, TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced that he too would do some "coolie work" to raise money.

Telangana IT and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao, son of the Chief Minister, prepared fruit juices and sold ice cream at an ice-cream parlour in the city yesterday.

The ice cream and fruit juices, prepared by Rama Rao, were reportedly purchased by Lok Sabha member Malla Reddy and other party leaders who paid Rs 7.5 lakh to the minister.

TRS leaders elsewhere in the state also undertook similar works.

The TRS had organised such a campaign earlier too for its annual plenary and public meeting. The plenary would be held in Hyderabad on April 21 and a massive public meeting is proposed to be organised at Warangal on April 27.

"The public meeting should be grand. TRS leaders and activists already have this habit. We had done this twice, top to bottom, from village-level activist to state Chief Minister. Two-day coolie work should be done to earn money. They have to take care of their expenditure [for the public meeting]," Chandrasekhar Rao had said.

He had announced April 14-20 as "coolie days" during which the work should be undertaken.

"I will also do 'coolie' (work) for two days somewhere, guarantee," the party president had said.

Rao is all set to be re-elected as party president at the plenary. However, when asked who is going to be the next party president, Rao said, "Let's see the result of the election."

Asked about speculation that Rama Rao would become the working president of TRS, Rao said the questioner himself was describing the matter as speculation.