Hyderabad, May 12: How did Congress nominee Kasani Gnaneswar bite the dust in the election to the Legislative Council from the Ranga Reddy LAC (Local Authorities Constituency)? Knowing its weakness in the constituency, the Congress had brought into the fray Gnaneswar, who was president of Mana Party, as it thought he would be able to win because he had the resources to turn the tables on the opposition. But the ruling party was proved wrong and Telugu Desam candidate Narender Reddy walked away with the cake.
Now that the election is over and the result known, Congress leaders now claim saying that they had never pinned hopes on the seat.
Look at what Pradesh Congress Committee chief D Srinivas said today.
“We never said we would win the seat since the party never had a majority among the constituents.
Had we won the seat, it would have been a bonus,’’ he said.
It was hoped that Gnaneswar would be able to make up for lack of a majority among the constituents with his other abilities to win the election. But he did not apparently take into account the lack of unity among the Congress leaders in the district. According to PCC sources, several leaders of the party were not happy with the leadership’s decision to contest the poll from the Ranga Reddy LAC despite knowing that the Telugu Desam had got 70 votes more in the district.
Besides, the PCC had supported the candidature of Gnaneswar for the lone seat in spite of opposition from several Congress leaders on grounds that Kasani who was the founder of Mana Party, was an `outsider’.
Yet, the party leadership fielded him in the hope that he would `manage’ to win the seat.
But ultimately the Congress nominee failed to `manage’ and lost the poll by 48 votes. Of the 644 votes polled, TDP’s P Narender Reddy got 342 votes as against his party’s strength of 300 while the Congress secured 294 votes as against its strength of 250.
–Agencies