Former Union Minister Sarve Satyanarayana, who was suspended from the Congress party on Sunday on the charges of “anti-party activities”, has demanded that AICC in-charge of party affairs in Telangana R.C. Khuntia and Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy quit their posts taking moral responsibility to the party's drubbing by TRS in the recent Assembly elections.
Requesting the party high command to remove the two leaders from the party posts holding them responsible for the party's ignominious defeat, Mr. Satyanarayana said he would mobilise the leaders having similar opinion and take up a movement till they were removed from the posts. “My slogan now is Uttam-Khuntia hatao, Congress ko bachao” (remove Uttam-Khuntia and save Congress in Telangana).
He levelled serious allegation against the two leaders that they had sold party tickets and fielded weak candidates. “They have also denied tickets to some leaders even after taking money and I will lead them to Delhi to explain the goings-on to the party high command”, Mr. Satyanarayana, who lost the election from Malkajgiri constituency said.
Accusing Uttam Kumar Reddy of colluding with TRS leadership from 2014, the two-time former MP said he had got a weak candidate fielded against him in the 2014 election from Huzurnagar as part of his tacit understanding with TRS. In the recent elections, he had ensured tickets to weak candidates, again in collusion with TRS, in return of “go-slow” on the CID case in the housing scam, he alleged while addressing a press conference here.
Mr. Satyanarayana also accused the Uttam-Khuntia duo of conspiring to defeat him and M. Bhatti Vikramarka so as to remove from his (Uttam's) way in the event of party's victory in the elections as “we were among the front-runners for the Chief Minister post. How can those who worked against the party's interests take action against me”, he questioned.
Further, the former Union Minister suggested the party needed a total overhaul in Telangana to revive its electoral fortunes at least in the coming elections. The two leaders were trying to hang-on to their posts by conducting meaningless review meetings without any sincere introspection for the party's defeat, he pointed out.
