Congress, TD struggle in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Despite the election atmosphere here, main Opposition Congress which is claiming itself as the only alternative to the ruling TRS has been unable to make the right moves to meet the challenges ahead. It is almost two years since the Congress has been unable to decide upon a leader to head the organisation. 

The Congress is still suffering in Greater Hyderabad, which has 24 Assembly segments-15 in Hyderabad city and nine in adjacent Rangareddy urban areas, to find candidates for contesting in next elections. These 24 segments will constitute one-fifth of the total Assembly constituencies of the state. 

Congress sources said that AICC president Rahul Gandhi had held a review meeting with state Congress leaders on the situation in Greater Hyderabad and expressed thorough dissatisfaction over the affairs. He is reported to have asked the leaders how the party could function without a head all these years? It is learnt that Rahul Gandhi has told the Congress leaders that he wants someone who will fight with the TRS, BJP and Majlis  alike in the city and asked the leaders to find out a leader immediately. 

“We are facing a critical situation in Greater Hyderabad to find out a leader to head the organisation,” a key leader from the Congress said.

It was Congress that won eight seats out of 15 in the city in 2009 but it did not win a single seat in the 24 segments of Greater Hyderabad in the elections in 2014. Despite this, several Assembly segments in the city still do not have full time in-charges to take care of the party affairs and hotchpotch arrangements are there almost everywhere.

As far as the BJP is concerned, it got five seats with TD alliance in the last elections and the TD secured 10 seats. Since the BJP snapped ties on its own with the TD in the state, BJP wants to ext-end its base to other segments, especially the segments once held by the TD. 

“We have monitored all the polling booth committees and there is a stiff competition among the BJP leaders to grab seats in the coming elections. We hope for a good show this time,” city BJP president N. Ramachandra Rao said. 

He said that there is no dearth of BJP candidates in the seven Assembly segments held by Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) as the voters are polarised on communal lines. But insiders in the BJP said the party is struggling to find good candidates in many segments. 

‘Namesake contests are different from fielding strong leaders. We may have several candidates to contest. That doesn’t mean we have strong ones,” a key leader said.

However, the situation in the TD from which 10 MLAs won in Greater Hyderabad last time is pathetic. Except LB Na-gar MLA, all the remaining nine TD MLAs quit the party and joined the TRS. Even its ally BJP also quit the alliance. 

The struggle TD is facing elsewhere in Telangana state is reflected in Greater Hyderabad too with namesake in-charges continuing without any major party work. 

It is reliably learnt that TD MLA from LB Nagar R. Krishnaiah is likely to switch over sides to the Congress or join the Opp-osition front. 

However, the ruling TRS which had won only a single seat in the last elections in Hyderabad city has somehow managed to get nine TD MLAs to its side, besides inducting few Congressmen in the city. The remarkable performance of TRS in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections by getting 99 out of 150 seats and majority remaining seats going to MIM, there is a great competition among aspirants to be TRS candidates next time. 

“We are not weak like in last time. We are the strongest now. In fact, our main rival Congress is facing doldrums in the city,” TRS leader Palla Rajeswara Reddy said.