Tension prevailed at the meeting hall of Gandhi Bhavan, the headquarters of TPCC, for about half an hour on Saturday when two rival groups of the party from Amberpet constituency exchanged blows during the felicitation of Congress Legislature Party Leader M. Bhatti Vikramarka.
It all started when supporters of Nuthi Srikanth Goud, the OBC wing chairman of the Hyderabad City Congress Committee, refused to garland former MP V. Hanumantha Rao, who was on the dais. Mr. Goud was understood to be challenging the leadership of Mr. Rao in the constituency in recent years.
Angered by the “insult” Mr. Rao’s followers questioned the attitude of Mr. Goud’s followers and both sides were engaged in an exchange of words. As the arguments heated up, a couple of followers of Mr. Goud allegedly attempted to attack Mr. Rao but were obstructed by party activists Bollu Kishna and Nagesh. The two suffered a few blows and fisticuffs in the melee.
The two sides went on shouting out the other although some senior leaders tried to calm down the two groups. During the melee, some party men also banged the meeting hall doors and windows and normalcy was restored following repeated pleas and persuasion to carry on the felicitation programme.
Later, chairman of TPCC OBC wing J. Chittaranjan Das sacked Mr. Goud from his OBC wing post, holding him responsible for the unsavoury incident.
Meanwhile, Mr. Das asked the party leaders to strengthen the organisation further by shunning groupism. He suggested fielding more BC leaders in the coming Lok Sabha elections and also 40% posts in the State committee and executive to BCs.
Mr. Hanumantha Rao cautioned the CLP leader against the ruling party’s attempts to encourage defection of some Congress MLAs into TRS. He alleged that disciplinary action against the BC, SC and ST leaders in the party was high and the indiscipline by leaders from upper castes was being overlooked.
