Congress in Catch 22 situation on MLC elections

Party divided on contesting though it can’t win a single seat

Power tussle within the Telangana Congress continues and the MLC elections under the Local Authorities Constituencies, to be held soon, have emerged as another platform where the leaders are trying to undermine each other’s supremacy than winning a seat, the chances of which are almost nil given their insufficient numbers.

A recent meeting of the party saw a section strongly arguing for putting up the party candidates despite slim chances of winning even one to ensure they are not out of people’s mind in the contests. “I am all for a contest even though we have slim chances of bagging any seat,” a senior leader argued in the meeting. The party leadership was apparently of the opinion that they don’t have the sufficient numbers to win a seat in any district due to the poor representation of the party at the local body elections.

With the pressure mounting from a section, TPCC president Revanth Reddy constituted a committee led by former Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha and former Minister G. Chinna Reddy for eliciting opinions of all stakeholders to take a final decision. Mr. Rajanarasimha said on Saturday that the issue has been discussed and also how the ruling party had snatched nearly 50% of its elected representatives with power and money. “A report would be submitted in two days for the high command to take a final decision.”