A section of the Congress has expressed serious displeasure at the ruling party leaders in Chittoor district joining hands with the main opposition, the TDP, to win the District Cooperative Central Bank chief’s election slated on Monday.
What has angered these leaders is the desperate bid by the supporters of the Chief Minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, to wrest the DCCB chairman’s post by defeating former Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy’s bid to back the YSR Congress. The YSRC had won a good number of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) to be in the race for the DCCB and DCMS chief’s posts.
However, the government decided to bar the societies, which had not repaid the loans. This, in fact, helped the ruling party in Chittoor district keep the YSRC at bay as many PACS chairpersons backed by it were deprived of participating in the election of DCCB directors.
Irked by the Chittoor episode, some leaders reportedly faxed complaints against the Chief Minister’s camp to the high command, accusing it of joining hands with the rival TDP for political gains.
Congress leaders charge that it was a ploy by the Chief Minister’s camp to wrest the Chittoor DCCB at any cost. In the process, it managed to ensure election of eight directors unopposed, while four others went to the TDP.
The YSRC stayed away from the polls alleging misuse of official machinery. Leaders point out that the Congress can easily win the DCCB and the DCMS posts. But it has preferred to take the DCCB post and left the DCMS post to the TDP after reaching an “unofficial understanding.”
Party seniors are faulting the decision to bar the defaulting PACS from the polls. Of the 460 such societies, as many as 300 were won by Congress-backed candidates. This has cast a shadow on the aspirants who eyed the DCCB chief post. Meanwhile, the stage is set for election of DCCB chiefs on Monday and indications suggest that the Congress is confident of winning at least 18 districts leaving Khammam to the TDP and Kadapa to the YSRC.
