The defeat of the BJP in the neighboring Karnataka state has infused extra vigour and hope into the Congress in Telangana.
The renewed hope has fired the pistol for the race within the Congress to the chief minister’s office with mainly three leaders, TPCC president A Revanth Reddy, Legislative Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, and Bhuvanagiri MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy taking off towards the finishing line.
The competitors’ number might increase when more leaders join the party in the run-up to the elections, slated to be held towards the end of the year.
Former MP and BRS leader Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy is said to be toying with the idea of joining the Congress as its prospects of winning are on an uptick, specifically after the pummelling it gave to the BJP in Karnataka.
Meanwhile, the three leaders are braving the hot summer to connect with the people.They have managed to put out a façade that they have smoked the peace pipe and were working together to propel the party to power.
Telangana will elect 119 members to its Assembly by this year’s end.
Bhatti’s progress
Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who is on a padayatra from Boath (Adilabad) to Khammam, addressed a huge public meeting at Jadcherla on Thursday, 25 May.He urged the chief minister to be accountable for driving the state into a veritable debt trap.
He offered several welfare schemes to the people if they elected the party to power.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was the chief guest at the meeting.
Meanwhile, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy is employing another strategy.
He is using back-channel contacts to be in the good books of the party’s top brass.He is also trying to keep together his flock of workers and the people in his home Nalgonda district.
Last Tuesday, he addressed a huge gathering on his 60th birthday at the Brahim Vellam (Udaya Samurdam Lift Irrigation) Project on the Krishna river.Even as slogans demanding that Komatireddy be made the chief minister rent the air, he asked his followers to pipe down since he was not vying for the post.
He said the people would reject him at the election if he harboured any such ambition.
The message, however, was not lost on anyone.He was merely playing to the gallery.
Komatireddy threw the hat in the ring even as the race track to the chief minister’s post is gradually getting cluttered — normal in the Congress party before any polls.
Komatireddy mobilised a huge crowd for a ritual that he performed to celebrate the occasion — offering prayers to the Krishna river.The huge crowd and a convoy of around 500 vehicles clogged the Narketpally Brahmin Vellum Project road for hours.
The show of strength, the way he conducted himself, and the speech he delivered, left no one in doubt about his ambitions.
Revanth Reddy to start Yatra again
Meanwhile, TPCC president Revanth Reddy completed his padayatra in the state.During the yatra, he galvanised the youth with his powerful anti-K Chandrashekar Rao rhetoric.
He now wants to top up his padayatra with a bus yatra to cover the constituencies he had missed and those where the party is institutionally weak under the continuous pounding by the ruling BRS.He is likely to begin the yatra next month.
Each leader is hopeful of getting the party high command’s blessings if the verdict in the Assembly elections favours it.
Meanwhile, Komatireddy, a known and vocal critic of the TPCC president, is more interested in preventing him from becoming the chief minister.
He had used everything in his capacity to prevent him from becoming the PCC president, but failed.
