The former Chief Minister of combined Andhra Pradesh, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, was recently accorded a warm welcome when he came to the city to attend the State Executive Committee meeting.
But he was irked a bit when the former Union Minister, J.D. Seelam, reportedly referred to him as an “enemy” in the closed door meeting.
The former Chief Minister was believed to have retorted, saying that leaders should learn to speak only as much as required and nothing more if the party were to return to power.
Followers disappointed
Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s followers were highly disappointed when he was not allowed to say anything at the press conference that followed the meeting. AICC general secretary and in-charge of A.P. Oommen Chandy was the only one allowed to speak by APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy.
It is because of either such response, or lack of confidence, that there seems to be no impact to the call given by AICC president Rahul Gandhi, asking senior leaders who had left the party to return to its fold. Several weeks have passed by, but no big or small leader has returned to the party.
Several of them are preferring to become politically inactive rather than returning to the Congress.
Party workers, who had become a little enthused after Mr. Chandy was made in-charge and Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy rejoined the party, are now keeping their fingers crossed even as the elections are just a few months away. The impact of Mr. Chandy’s statement that the Congress would not have any alliance with political parties and that the only alliance it was going to have was with the people, also seems to be slowly weakening.
Strong rivals
Leaders feel that strengthening the party by forming booth-level committees is okay, but the party needs a leader who can match Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
“When we heard that Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy was coming back, we thought the party would use him to take on Mr. Naidu and Mr. Jagan. But the party seems to be having other plans,” said a middle rung leader. A few feel the party would fail if it does not have a strong ally to “support it, at least financially.”
