Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Praja Rajyam Party’s drubbing in elections: leadership blamed

VIJAYAWADA: Observers sent by the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) leadership to take stock of the affairs in Krishna district in the aftermath of elections faced severe criticism from the cadres at the review meeting on Wednesday.

The leaders faced the ire of some party workers, who did not get a chance to speak. “We gave slips first to express our feelings. But, you allowed others to speak. This kind of attitude has led the party to debacle,” they shouted.

The cadres held the leadership responsible for the drubbing the party received in the general elections, and suggested that it should change its “mindset and style of functioning” for a better future.

Visibly livid party activists raised a wide range of issues, including selection of candidates, election symbol, electoral alliances and failure to cash in on the people’s problems like spiralling prices.

“The opposition parties, including ours, ignored the issues that directly concerned the public, and it helped the Congress to retain power. The party should rebuild organisationally, and prepare for the local body elections,” the activists said.

They said most of them were diehard fans of party president Chiranjeevi, and they did not aspire for a post or profit. All they wanted was a “photograph with Chiranjeevi and an opportunity to shake hands with him.” But, he was hardly available for the visitors, they said.

“The party would have pocketed 30 more seats and become a king-maker had it entered into an electoral alliance with the Lok Satta Party. Our party could have won at least 30 segments more, but for the presence of the Lok Satta Party,” said Y. Ramakrishna, an activist.

Suresh, another activist, was furious against the selection of “wrong candidates.” “In the name of social justice, you (leadership) have backed the wrong horses,” he said.

Former Ministers Kotagiri Vidyadhara Rao and Metla Satyanarayana Rao, who were sent as observers by the party leadership, and local leaders suggested to the cadres not to excessively worry about the past and, instead, work for the future. The party should be strengthened from the grassroots level to see to it that Mr. Chiranjeevi became the Chief Minister at least next time. The PRP was the only alternative to the Congress, and it would come to power in 2014, they asserted.

All the speakers said there was an imminent need to change the party symbol. The Congress fielded dummy candidates whose names were closer to the names of PRP candidates, and these dummy candidates contested on road roller symbol and confused the voters, the speakers said.

PRP MLAs Vellampalli Srinivas (Vijayawada West), Yalamanchili Ravi (Vijayawada East), former MLAs Vangaveeti Radhakrishna and Buragadda Vedavyas, former MP K. P. Reddaiah and others were present.

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