After the Congress party suffered a worst drubbing in the Nandyal byelection, party senior leader and former Union Minister Chinta Mohan on Wednesday demanded that APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy step down owning moral responsibility for the poor show.
The Congress suffered a serious debacle as its candidate polled just above a thousand votes.
Attributing it to the wrong choice of the candidate, Dr. Mohan said that R. Sridevi, a candidate fielded by him in the Tirupati byelection two years ago, polled more than 10,000 votes. “Mr. Raghuveera Reddy’s resignation will help undo the damage to some extent and help the Congress gain sympathy,” he told the media here. He came down heavily at the way Mr. Reddy continued to cling on to the Special Category Status (SCS) issue, and, in the process, leaving the important task of candidate selection to the wind.
Dig at Naidu, Jagan
Taking exception to the way the byelection was conducted, Dr. Mohan blamed Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for “grossly misusing the official machinery.”
In the same vein, he accused YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy of spending ₹20 crore through a Member of Parliament towards distribution of sops among people.
He also held Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal responsible for the “shoddy” conduct of the election.
