Hyderabad, June 15: Having completed the spade work for the ensuing by-elections in Telangana, PCC president D Srinivas left for Delhi on Monday to apprise his party bosses of the ground situation.
But Congress leaders are not enthusiastic about contesting the elections. They are entering the fray reluctantly since the party has made it clear that as a national political party it cannot let by-elections go by uncontested.
As Telangana is a highly emotive issue and the Telangana Joint Action Committee and the TRS have already gone to town appealing to the people to reject all those other than the ones who had resigned to their seats, the Congress leaders are a little queasy about the outcome of the by-polls.
Five seats in Karimnagar, three in Adilabad, two in Nizamabad, one each in Warangal and Medak are going for byelections scheduled in July or August.
Even Srinivas would have a tough time winning in Nizamabad urban constituency vacated by BJP’s Y Lakshminarayana since apart from having to swim against the Telangnana tide, he would have to placate the ruffled feelings of Hindus.
Though the Congress leaders are putting up a brave face claiming that the party’s tally in the Assembly would go up by five at least, the situation is not encouraging for the party in many constituencies in all the five Telangana districts.
According to a Congress leader in Karimnagar, the party has to be in the fray whether it likes it or not to protect its cadre. If the party gives a go by to the election, the cadres who are charged with Telangana sentiment, might migrate to the TRS.
“It is very important that a party should fight elections with determination to win when there are challenges facing them. We have problems no doubt. But we should find away to surmount them,’’ he said.
According to him, the Congress has the chances of winning in some constituencies if campaign is handled right.
“If we can persuade the people that as a ruling party it was the Congress alone that could deliver Telangana, the people might support us,’’ he pointed out. The challenges according to him is that the by-elections are being fought on the issue of Telangana and when there are contestants who resigned in demonstration of their commitment to cause in the fray, there is a possibility of others (Congress) being seen as those working against this cause.
“This is a tricky area and the TRS is already exploiting this,’’ he said expressed anger at the TRS for trying to stoke flames of parochialism in one way or the other all the time. After the by-elections, TRS chief Chandrasekahra Rao and his comrade in arms Vijayashanthi might resign. He will do this to keep the movement alive, the leader said.
——Agencies