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Rahul forms forum to end Telangana Congress rifts
Rahul met over 35 senior leaders of the Telangana Congress, including PCC chief Revanth Reddy, Congress in charge of Telangana Manickam Tagore and national general secretary, organisation KC Venugopal in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi announced the creation of a party forum in Telangana to settle the differences and set the house in order, leaders aware of the development said on Tuesday.
Rahul met over 35 senior leaders of the Telangana Congress, including PCC chief Revanth Reddy, Congress in charge of Telangana Manickam Tagore and national general secretary, organisation KC Venugopal in New Delhi on Tuesday.
“Any leader having any grievance on the functioning of the party should be brought to the notice of the forum, instead of approaching the media or making public statements,” a senior Congress leader said, quoting Gandhi.
Gandhi warned the party seniors against running groups within the party and sabotaging the PCC leadership, he added.
Gandhi also promised to dedicate more time to Telangana and focus on revitalising the party in the state. “He has given his consent to tour Telangana for a couple of days in the last week of April. According to the tentative schedule, he might address a public meeting at Warangal on April 28, followed by a meeting with the party leaders at Gandhi Bhavan the following day,” the above-cited party leader said.
Congress in-charge Tagore later tweeted, “The greatest strength of us is our leader @RahulGandhi who listen for 3.30 hours from 38 leaders of @INCTelangana team. We will win Telangana...Congress will work as Team in Telangana.”
“Gandhi spoke for 7 minutes but listened for 293 minutes nonstop. No ‘Mannkibaat’ but Congress ki baat,” Tagore added.
Gandhi also sought to allay the apprehensions of the Telangana leaders that the Congress might have a tie-up with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from coming to power in the state.
PCC chief Revanth Reddy told reporters that Rahul told them that there would be no alliance with the TRS or MIM.
After the meeting, Reddy said, “We held a discussion with Rahul Ji over various issues including farmers, inflation, fuel price hike and paddy procurement etc. Rahul Ji will visit Telangana this month. No alliance...Congress will fight against TRS and BJP in Telangana.”
This is the second meeting with the Telangana leaders within a week which comes at a time when KCR is making efforts to bring all the anti-BJP and anti-Congress parties on one platform as part of his national ambitions for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
