Telangana Congress leaders are baffled by the manner in which TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao chose to single out TPCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah while criticising the Congress party.
Mr. Rao has been specifically targeting the TPCC chief at almost all his election rallies leaving the Congress leaders wondering over the former’s intentions. Party leaders see a clever design in the outbursts some of which are personal remarks against Mr. Lakshmaiah.
AICC campaign committee member and MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, who dashed off a letter to the CEO on Tuesday demanded stern action against Mr. Rao. “He is violating all norms and guidelines of the EC by using objectionable language,” Mr. Reddy in his letter to the CEO said. He said the provocative statements against Congress leaders were not only uncivilised but un-parliamentary too.
When contacted, Mr. Reddy said the TRS chief was trying to derive mileage by linking the TPCC president’s connection with former advisor to YSR K. V. P. Ramachandra Rao. By accusing Mr.Lakshmaiah of amassing wealth through the alleged kickbacks in Jalayagnam projects, he is trying to create an impression that the TPCC chief has been installed at the instance of the Seemandhra lobby.
A senior TPCC functionary maintained that Mr. Rao found Mr. Lakshmaiah as a weak leader, who would not react as strongly as other leaders like former Deputy Chief Minister C. Damodar Raj Narasimha or former Minister K. Jana Reddy would have done. The leader pointed out that he wanted to create an impression among the voters that even if the Congress party came to power by chance in the next election, it would be driven by the Seemandhra leaders.
However, a section of the Congress leaders feel that Mr. Lakshmaiah should not have fallen into the trap of Mr. Rao’s outbursts. “He should have asked a team of senior Congress leaders to counter the wild charges levelled by the TRS president. Instead, he is reacting in a panic mode which he should have not done,” a senior leader remarked.
Mr. Lakshmaiah on his part did not spare the TRS president saying that his language reflected his state of mind. “No decent person will make such remarks to malign an individual,” he said adding that if TRS came to power, feudal and dictatorial tendencies would rule the roost.
