Internal bickering in the Congress in Telangana came to the fore less than 24 hours after the party’s humiliating show in general elections, with party seniors indulging in a blame game.
Already wilting under the crushing defeat inflicted by TRS, Rajya Sabha member Palvai Govardhan Reddy fired the first salvo on Saturday blaming Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Ponnala Lakshmaiah for the party’s poor showing.
Along with the TPCC chief, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh also took the brunt of his criticism for not constituting a separate PCC immediately after the July 30 announcement on dividing the State. “Mr. Lakshmaiah owes an answer for the worst performance,” he said, adding that all the seniors had vested interests. “TPCC activities were run under the directions of Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao,” Mr Reddy charged.
“It is because of the collective failure of the party seniors that TDP managed to win a decent number of seats,” he said. Mr. Reddy did not mince words in criticising Mr. Divijay Singh for misleading AICC president Sonia Gandhi. “Faulty candidate selection, failure to put up a united show and ambition of seniors to assume Chief Minister’s post are causes for the poor showing,” he said. The Rajya Sabha member said former Minister K. Jana Reddy should also own up responsibility for the setback.
As the party is coming to grip with the spectacular performance of TRS, senior leaders led by TPCC chief met former Union Minister S. Jaipal Reddy to take stock of the election results. Nalgonda MP Gutha Sukhender Reddy, who was among the only two to get elected from Telangana to Lok Sabha, said every one in the party should own responsibility for the worst showing.
Party sources said none of the seniors could effectively highlight the fact that but for Congress a separate Telangana would not have been created. They maintained that mutual distrust coupled with ambition of several leaders to become the Chief Minister of Telangana and attempts at sabotaging the chances of rivals within the party caused immense damage.
Leaders in private agreed that voters were impressed by the promises made by TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao. They pointed out that people were in no mood to give credit to Congress for the bifurcation of the State. “We were no match to the campaign by KCR. People have taught us a fitting lesson that infighting and personal agenda of individuals will not be tolerated,” a TPCC official spokesperson told The Hindu .
Another leader said apart from Modi wave, the anti-incumbency factor against several Ministers and sitting members was reflected in the decisive outcome.
