Hyderabad, March 25: The Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, has reportedly expressed her displeasure over the poor show of the party in the MLC polls from local bodies. The Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday evening met Mrs Gandhi and submitted a detailed report on the poll results. They discussed in detail about the steps to be taken to strengthen the party for about 45 minutes. Mrs Gandhi reportedly enquired the reasons for the party’s poor show, unable to retain the six seats it had held earlier. The Chief Minister told her about the large-scale money spent by rivals and the internal sabotage by some leaders including senior legislators.
He told her that when everyone dismissed the party in Kadapa, he was able to prove that the party emerged strong within few months of his tenure as Chief Minister. The understanding between the Jagan group and the TD in exchanging the second preference votes also led the party to lose some seats, particularly in East and West Godavari district.
Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy, also called on Mr Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad in the morning separately and discussed the list of names for nomination under the Governor quota. It is learnt the Congress central leadership will clear the names in a couple of days. Unconfirmed reports say Congress central leadership is not averse to recommend the same candidates who are going to retire by this month end.
–Agencies