A midnight diktat from the party’s All India Congress Committee (AICC) central leadership, to arrange on a war footing accommodation for the newly elected party legislators of Karnataka, put the managerial skills of the top functionaries of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) to ultimate test.
With clear instructions that the entire exercise should be a closely guarded affair, the TPCC leaders, led by president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, had to literally get their act together to accomplish the biggest task of their careers.
Top sources in the TPCC said a call from the AICC around midnight asking Mr. Reddy to be ready to host over 100 MLAs for a couple of days literally caught them off guard. “We are planning to bring the MLAs to Hyderabad, be prepared to make all arrangements without any difficulty,” is what the AICC told the TPCC leaders.
The TPCC leaders had just finished their public meeting in Mancherial, about 300 km from Hyderabad, on Thursday night and were preparing to retire for the night when the call literally threw them off balance. tHE Sources said Mr. Reddy, on getting the specific direction, spoke to half-a-dozen close confidantes in Hyderabad and asked them to scout for suitable accommodation.
“They wanted 100 rooms and it was a herculean task to arrange so many rooms at that unearthly hour. We tried to book resorts on the outskirts but were told that they were full. We then zeroed in on Park Hyatt but there too the rooms were not enough. We then sent one senior leader to Taj Krishna and woke up the top managers asking them to book 100 rooms for a marriage party. A cash depost of ₹ 12 lakh was made towards the rooms and food,” a senior Congress leader involved in the arrangements told The Hindu on condition of anonymity on Friday.
Travel by four buses
Once the accommodation was confirmed, two senior leaders — A.Maheshwar Reddy, Nirmal District Congress Committee chief, and T. Jayaprakash Reddy alias Jagga Reddy, former Congress Whip, were deputed to receive the Karnataka MLAs travelling by four buses near Jadcherla on Friday morning.
While there were over 66 MLAs travelling in the buses, the Congress leadership in Karnataka ensured that two decoy buses were also included in the convoy so that their travel plans did not go awry.
Finally, the Karnataka legislators, accompanied by other senior leaders from Karnataka, began arriving at Taj Krishna.
“As soon as the first luxury bus entered Taj Krishna, the hotel managers were shocked to see the politicians from Karnataka. They were worried about the safety of the hotel,” another Congress leader said.
TPCC leaders said they were prepared for a 10-day stay of the legislators but things appear to have eased after the Supreme Court decided on floor test on Saturday itself.
