The year 2014 turned out to be unremarkable for the Congress in the new State where its dream of winning the elections after creating Telangana fell flat.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) that championed the separate statehood cause pipped it to lord over Telangana. Congress failed to gauge public mood and over confidence of a cakewalk proved wrong. The Congress party’s expectation of crossing the 60 seat mark to come to power was belied as it managed to settle for mere 21 seats while the TRS raced past that mark with ease.
Congress leaders pointed out how several Ministers in the Kiran Kumar Reddy eyed the Chief Minister’s post. Instead of putting up a united fight, they were busy working overtime to ‘sabotage’ the prospects of the party seniors, who were in race for the coveted post. Barring less than half-a-dozen Ministers, in the previous Congress Government all lost the polls, which clearly reflected voter apathy towards the Congress.
Disconnect between the leaders and the voters was visible as the Congress failed to read the mind of the people, who appeared inclined to give the credit for separate Telangana to TRS. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson B. Kamalakar Rao admitted that there was mutual distrust among the leaders and the haphazard approach towards Telangana also caused immense damage to the party.
Deputy Leader in the Council Md. Ali Shabbir too echoed similar sentiments saying that biggest challenge Congress faces was lack of coordination. He did not mince words in criticising the statements of certain leaders about social engineering, making a Dalit Chief Minister of Telangana that compounded their woes.
Even after six months of elections, the party is unable to keep its flock together. Spate of defections in the recent past has only weakened the party. En bloc defection of Congress MLCs into the TRS some time back was a big blow to the party even as it struggles to get the defectors disqualified.
It was only towards the fag end of the year particularly during the Assembly session that Congress managed to put up spirited fight by cornering the TRS Government on various burning issues, particularly the farmers’ suicides, power crisis and land issues.
