Cong leaders against truck with MIM

September 16, 2014 12:50 am | Updated May 24, 2016 01:52 pm IST - HYDERABAD:

Digvijay Singh addressing a meeting in Hyderabad.

Digvijay Singh addressing a meeting in Hyderabad.

Congress party workers from twin cities on Monday expressed their strong opposition to continuation of any electoral adjustment with the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) party in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections later this year.

Curiously enough, the reluctance of the party cadres and leaders to have a truck with the MIM came as a surprise as the latter had already severed its ties with the Congress ahead of the general elections. Of late the TRS and the MIM have forged fairly good understanding on various issues.

Beginning with Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumantha Rao, TPCC spokesperson G. Niranjan, former MLA P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy and Dr. P. Vinay Kumar, party candidate from Musheerabad in the Assembly elections, opposed the alliance.

They spoke of the past and how the MIM rode piggyback on the Congress all this while and even proclaimed an anti-Telangana stand but had now decided to go with the TRS.

AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh was present at the meeting.

Another contention that found favour was how the Congress stood for development and how the TRS was fast losing its base among its voters for not keeping up its promises.

A dozen party leaders voiced their opinion that the party was better off going solo in the upcoming GHMC elections.

Former Union Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, Telangana PCC President Ponnala Lakshmaiah, AICC secretary Ramachandra Kuntiya, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council D. Srinivas, Rajya Sabha members Renuka Choudary and M.A. Khan, CLP leader K. Jana Reddy, GHMC floor leader Wajid Hussain and former Mayor Banda Karthika Chandra Reddy said if Hyderabad had become Greater Hyderabad, it is because of the Congress and the late Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Mr. Digvijay Singh said party did not get the support from the Seemandhra people settled in the twin cities. “We need to introspect because Congress always believed in communal harmony. We had an understanding with the AIMIM, but we cannot tolerate fundamentalism and communal divide any more,” he stated.

Mr. Digvijay wanted the Congressmen in the GHMC unit to be prepared for the elections. “We will prefer hard-working candidates from the field. Either you choose one candidate among yourselves to contest from your ward or send us a panel of three names, by October 31. I assure you that the high command will not thrust a candidate on you that you don’t want. New people should be given an opportunity,” he said.

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