Rift in Husnabad Congress comes to the fore

Karimnagar: The internal differences between the leaders of the Congress once again came to the fore, resulting in clashes between two groups belonging to former MP Ponnam Prabhakar and former MLA Aligireddy Praveen Reddy here in Husnabad constituency of Karimnagar district on Tuesday.

During the “Intintiki Congress programme”, the supporters of both leaders raised slogans against each other while distributing ‘guarantee cards’, which were announced by party leader Sonia Gandhi at the Tukkuguda meeting.

In front of Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Mohan Prakash, the leaders of the two groups got into a heated disagreement before fighting. For a while, the mood was tense, but subsequently, the supporters of both leaders joined the leaders in the distribution of guarantee cards.

It should be mentioned that former MLA Praveen Reddy rejoined the Congress after resigning from the BRS. He participated in different party programmes and stepped up his political efforts in the Husnabad area as he ran for the MLA seat.

However, the decision of the senior leader and former MP Ponnam Prabhakar to run from the Husnabad constituency and to move his base from Karimnagar to Husnabad, along with buying a house in the area shocked Praveen Reddy and his supporters.

At first, the two leaders took part in several party events together, and rumours circulated in the party that the two had come to an agreement that, in exchange for each other's help, if one ran for office as an MLA, the other will run for office as an MP.

One of the leaders of the Congress claimed that the entrance of Prabhakar irritated him while Praveen Reddy, a local, was preparing the ground to run in the Assembly elections. However, he first remained mute and even joined him in some of the programmes.

However, Praveen Reddy and his supporters did not understand when Prabhakar moved his base to Husnabad and had a housewarming celebration by inviting local Congress leaders, and they skipped the function. After that, they began to have internal conflicts because they were both competing for the same MLA ticket to represent Husnabad.