Unhappy with the attitude of TPCC president Revanth Reddy, many potential candidates left the Congress party at nick of the election time. Many of them are loyal and long-time associates who have been with the party through thick and thin. They were ignored and humiliated by Revanth Reddy and his followers. They were deliberately forced to quit the party even at the cost of election prospects.
The leaders include former TPCC president Ponnala Laxmaiah, Kantareddy Tirupathi Reddy (Medak), Nandikanti Sridhar (Malkajgiri), Jitta Balakrishna Reddy (Bhuvanagiri), Kotha Manohar Reddy (Maheshwaram), Somasekhar Reddy (Uppal), Patel Prabhakar Reddy (Gadwal), Ganta Ramesh (Peddapalli), Chinthapalli Jagadeshwar Rao (PCC member), Ragidi Laxma Reddy (Uppal) and many others. They all queued up to join the ruling BRS party.
The sulked leaders accused Revanth Reddy of amassing Rs. 600 crore selling away nearly 65 tickets. He got the candidates to give money and register their precious lands in his name for issuing tickets to contest the ensuing assembly elections on Congress tickets. Such hype was created that the Congress party is forming the government in Telangana and those who wish to be part of the government may buy the tickets. Many gullible leaders fell flat for the hype and spent huge sums just for the ticket. They have to spend much more than that to secure votes and there is no guarantee even if they spend. The public mood is strongly in favour of CM KCR and his BRS party.
Mr Revanth Reddy proved to be an enemy of the age-old Congress party and its loyal members. Some of the leaders even complained to the Enforcement Directorate accusing him of being involved in hawala transactions. The rebel leaders allege that Revanth Reddy colluded with the KC Venugopal and some Karantaka leaders and they are misleading Rahul Gandhi. This clique is amassing wealth in the name of elections. Does quitting of potential candidates augur well for the Congress? One had to wait and see.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao