Hyderabad, May 19: Three days after facing a humiliating defeat at the hands of YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy in the Kadapa byelection, the Congress has quickly begun a damage control exercise in Andhra Pradesh to prevent further erosion of the Congress base in the state. On Monday, Union health minister and AICC in-charge of AP affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad flew down to Hyderabad to hold discussions with party leaders at all levels on improving the coordination at the field level and to check further slide in the party’s stocks.
Interestingly, on the same day, as many as 17 MLAs and four MLCs attended the ‘Rythu Deeksha’ (hunger strike for farmers) taken up by Jagan at Guntur. The number is expected to swell to 27 on Tuesday, when the newly-elected Kadapa MP concludes his 48-hour fast. Soon after his arrival, Azad held the first round of talks with chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president D. Srinivas and other senior leaders at the airport lounge itself and later at Lake View Guest House.
He reportedly told party leaders the scale of defeat in the Kadapa by-elections was a matter of concern for party president Sonia Gandhi, who had expressed severe disappointment with the party’s performance. Several Congress leaders blamed the chief minister and Srinivas for the inept handling of the Kadapa by-elections. They alleged that both leaders had miserably failed to give direction to the leaders and cadres in the district.
Jagan won the Kadapa seat by more than 543,000 votes. The election had been a prestige issue for the Congress, which fielded 15 ministers to campaign for its candidate. Four Congress MLAs from Chittoor, the native district of the CM, met Azad and made a strong case for a change of guard in the state. The MLAs – Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, G. Kuthuhalamma, Ravi and Shahjahan – made it clear to the AICC in-charge that the party would be wiped out if Kiran continues as the CM. Gandhi Bhavan sources say Azad hinted Sonia might replace D. Srinivas as the PCC president.
He reportedly sought the leaders’ opinion individually as to who would be the ideal choice. While Azad grapples with the party position in the post-poll scenario, he has to deal with another major issue – the Telangana statehood demand.
The party MLAs, ministers and MPs from the Telangana region had a separate meeting at Hotel Golconda before meeting Azad in the evening. At the meeting, they told Azad the Telangana movement was all set to regain momentum in the next couple of weeks, when they might find it difficult to step into their constituencies. “The party high command had promised to take up the Telangana issue after the elections to the five state assemblies. The issue should be resolved at the earliest. Otherwise, the party would face a Kadapa-like situation in Telangana in the forthcoming local body elections as well,” a Telangana leader told Azad.
“That would be more humiliating for the party. It is certain that Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K. Chandrashekar Rao will turn out to be another Jagan for the Congress in the region,” he added. Later in the day, Azad attended a dinner hosted by the CM at Jubilee Hall, where he interacted with various leaders and elected representatives. He is expected to continue meeting party leaders on Tuesday.
-PTI