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Leaders summoned to Delhi over discontent in Telangana Congress
While former MP V Hanumanth Rao had already reached the national capital on Monday, two other seniors – Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and legislator D Sridhar Babu – left for New Delhi in the morning.
With the discontent within the Telangana Congress against Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy reaching a flashpoint, the party high command on Tuesday summoned at least three senior party leaders to Delhi to stem the rot.
While former MP V Hanumanth Rao had already reached the national capital on Monday, two other seniors – Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and legislator D Sridhar Babu – left for New Delhi in the morning.
They were expected to meet Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal and Manickam Tagore later in the evening. Hanumanth Rao had already sought an appointment with party president Sonia Gandhi, a party leader familiar with the development said.
The high command has apparently taken serious note of a closed-door meeting held by a group of disgruntled Congress leaders, under the banner of “Congress loyalists”, at a hotel on Sunday, essentially with an agenda of demanding the sacking of Revanth Reddy as the PCC chief.
Apart from the above three leaders, others who attended the meeting included former ministers Marri Shashidhar Reddy and J Geetha Reddy and present Sangareddy MLA and PCC working president T Jayaprakash Reddy alias Jagga Reddy.
While expressing unhappiness over the style of functioning of Revanth Reddy, the seniors decided to lead a delegation to New Delhi to meet party president Sonia Gandhi and lodge a complaint against the PCC chief. It was second such meeting in the last one week.
Shashidhar Reddy said the seniors were not happy with the way Revanth Reddy was taking unilateral decisions without taking the others into confidence. “He seems to be of the view that mobilising huge crowds at his meetings indicates his growing popularity. But there is no strategy to translate this turnout into votes,” he said.
He said the seniors would ask the party high command to revamp the PCC as it has done in the case of the PCCs in five states which went to polls recently and where the party has failed to put up a good show.
Jagga Reddy, who has been the vocal among all the party seniors in attacking the PCC chief’s style of functioning, on Tuesday said he would show Revanth Reddy his place. He alleged that the PCC chief was not bothered to consult him on crucial issues. “He did not even inform me, when he visited my constituency in Medak district,” he alleged.
Stating that he had no issues with any others in the Congress, Jagga Reddy said he would continue in the party as long as he could but would fight against the unilateral decisions of the PCC chief.
It was only on Monday that the PCC chief stripped Jagga Reddy of his additional responsibilities in the party organisation. The decision followed the PCC working president’s open challenge to Revanth Reddy to field a candidate from the Sangareddy constituency and ensure his victory.
“I will resign as an MLA and contest as an independent. Let Revanth field a candidate of his choice and ensure his victory,” Jagga Reddy challenged.
Meanwhile, another disgruntled Congress MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy refuted the reports that he was quitting the party. He said he would remain in the Congress till his last breath.
Referring to the difference between him and the PCC chief, he said they were very common in any political party. He said he would go ahead in the state as per the directions of the party high command. “My main goal is to bring the Congress party back into power in Telangana,” he said.
