Telangana Congressmen begin blame game

Hyderabad: The Telangana Congress is not confident of its performance in the recent polls and of forming the first government of the new state. After the polls, the Telangana Congress leaders tried to analyse the prospects of party candidates district wise and they were unable to calculate how many seats would the party win. They, however, realised that the party would not reach the magic figure to form the government on its own.

All Telangana Congress leaders agree that the party will not be in a position to form the government and have started to blame each other even before the election results are out. Former government chief whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy on Friday indirectly blamed the Telangana PCC leadership for the party’s poor performance in Telangana.

According to the Telangana Congress leaders, the reasons for the party’s poor performance was poor state leadership, lack of star campaigners and wrong selection of candidates in some constituencies. Mr Ramana Reddy said the Telangana Congress leadership should be held responsible for the election results.

Speaking to the media at Warangal, he expressed dissatisfaction about the campaign in Telangana. He said that there were many visible lapses during the campaign and added that there was lack of leadership and coordination during the campaign. He said there were no star campaigners like former Chief Minister late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy who was a mass leader and added that though AICC president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s public meetings in Telangana had attracted huge crowds, the state leadership had failed to cash in on it.

Mr Ramana Reddy said the Telangana Congress leaders had failed to take the message to the people that the Congress had given the separate Telangana state. He observed that the Congress candidates had to face tough fights even in Assembly segments where the party was expected to win hands down. Mr Ramana Reddy also said the Telangana people believed the TRS manifesto but not the Telangana Congress manifesto.

Indirectly criticising Telangana PCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah, he said the party’s state leadership should be held responsible for the election results. He wanted the party leaders to review the deficits that he had pointed out. The wrong selection of candidate in Narsampet (Warangal) and allotment of the Pinapaka Assembly segment (Khammam) to CPI will have an adverse impact on the prospects of the Congress candidates there.

The change of candidate for the Narsampet Assembly segment in Warangal district will have an adverse impact on the Congress candidates chances. Mr Donti Madhava Reddy was changed in the last minute and the ticket was given to Katti Venkata Swamy.

Both Narsampet and Pinapaka Assembly segments comes under the Mahabubabad Lok Sabha constituency from where Union minister Balaram Naik has contested. The wrong selection of candidate in Narsampet and allotment of the Pinapaka Assembly segment to CPI will have an adverse impact on the prospects of Mr Balaram Naik.

Similarly if the Zaheerabad Lok Sabha seat was given to a Muslim candidate, both Zaheerabad Lok Sabha and Assembly segments would have been won by the Congress, said a party leader. However, the high command preferred to give the Zaheerabad Lok Sabha ticket to the sitting MP.

He wanted the party leaders to review the deficits that he had pointed out. He, however, went on to say that the Congress would win in Telangana. Some candidates had also set back the party prospects.

For example in Warangal district, Mr Donti Madhava Reddy was given a ticket for the Narsampet Assembly segment and party leaders thought that a win here was a foregone conclusion, But all of a sudden the high command made a change and gave the Narsampet Assembly ticket to

Mr Katti Venkata Swamy making Mr Donti Madhava Reddy a rebel candidate who gave a tough fight to the party’s official candidate. In Khammam’s Pinapaka Assembly segment, the sitting Congress MLA was denied the ticket and the segment was allotted to the CPI.