Hyderabad, June 13: The Congress is a house bitterly divided as it faces the bypoll to 12 Assembly seats in the Telangana region. For one, there is the din raised by Rayalaseema leaders that the separate Statehood slogan be avoided and stress be laid on “development and welfare”.
Their argument is that should the party wade into the polls with the statehood plank, its chances would take a hit in the subsequent civic body polls in the Rayalaseema and Andhra regions.
As it is, Congress contestants have a severe credibility problem in Telangana where they are up against those who had quit their seats to demonstrate their commitment to the cause of Statehood.
In fact, there are many voices in the party that insist that it should not fight the elections in the first place for if does, it would only further estrange the electorate.
And, indeed, the TRS and the TJAC have already been raising Cain that any others who contest — whether from the TDP or Congress — would go down in history as betrayers of Telangana.
These issues have caused considerable headache to PCC president D Srinivas (who himself is a contender for the Nizamabad seat) and Chief Minister K Rosaiah, and at a meeting on poll preparedness in Adilabad district the other day they made their displeasure known. Rosaiah loyalists are saying he would campaign in Telangana. “What is wrong with that?” asks Congress MLA from Warangal district G Venkata Ramana Reddy, knowing full well that Rosaiah being from Andhra, his very presence could spell doom for party candidates.
Meanwhile, a petulant Srinivas said at the Gandhi Bhavan here on Saturday: “We know what slogan to adopt. We don’t need to take suggestions from others.” He was alluding to the objections being raised by leaders of parties in Telangana, including TRS.
Realising the gravity of the situation, the party high command has summoned Srinivas to Delhi to discuss the course it should adopt. He will leave on Monday.
AICC secretary and State party affairs observer KB Krishnamurthy has said that the high command took such decisions whenever there were “extraordinary circumstances”.
The Congress, in principle, would contest whenever the byelections took place, he added.
Senior Telangana Congress leader and MP V Hanumantha Rao too made it clear that the party high command would take a decision on the byelections and slogan. “Partymen should abide by the high command’s decision,’’ he said.
Congress has its own strategy to fight bypolls, says DS
APCC president D Srinivas on Saturday said that there was no need for the Congress to take suggestions from others (political parties) on which slogan it should fight elections. “We (Congress party) have our own strategies in fighting the elections.
We know with what slogan the party should go when it fights the bypolls. Winning the seats will be our criteria. Our slogan will be on the issues that the party had promised to the people,’’ he noted.
The APCC president before leaving for Delhi on Monday for review of poll prepardness by the party high command will have a meeting tomorrow with the leaders of Nizamabad, Medak and Warangal districts where bypolls are due.
He along with Chief Minister K Rosaiah had already held a meeting recently with the party leaders of Karimnagar and Adilabad to discuss bypoll issue.
——Agencies