By Oracle
It is too much to expect scrupulous conduct from the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Telangana Jana Samithi were coerced into agreeing to the unbridled and brazen distraction from the broad ethical line.
First of all, let us take a look at the latest smudge the Congress is not even attempting to cover up. The party candidate from Medchal Assembly constituency, Kicchannagari Laxma Reddy, is playing host to the grandiose public meeting of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, leaders of all “Praja Kutami” parties and the 119 candidates contesting on behalf of the kutami.
The meeting venue is also KLR Ventures Grounds.
Medchal is now the epicenter of a major controversy that has spread its roots across the globe. The infamous turf war between CBI Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana; the various names emerging in it.
Congress candidate Laxma Reddy has been named in a transaction with Sana Satish Babu, who is also in the thick of the CBI controversy, by a CBI DIG Manish Kumar Sinha who filed a petition in the Supreme Court. Spokesperson of the BJP Krishna Rao was quoted as questioning the deal and the links and also as to why Sonia Gandhi, who did not go for campaign in any other poll-bound States, was coming to campaign in Laxma Reddy’s constituency.
Though the Congress retorted saying the National Security Advisor and a Union Minister were also named in the same petition, the pertinent point is that Laxma Reddy was named in it and the top leaders of the Congress are addressing their public meeting from his home turf.
Next, the Congress campaign committee came up with front page advertisements in major newspapers on Friday.
The irony is that the pictures of the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, the late N T Rama Rao, AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu were juxtaposed with the pictures of all other Congress leaders. NTR had never compromised with the Congress in his lifetime.
Business of politics
Chandrababu Naidu always compromised with the Congress. He toppled NTR when the Congress Government was at the helm in Delhi in 1995. It wouldn’t be possible to do so without the tacit support of the Union Government. He also negotiated with and secured the support of the Congress to install United Front Government. He toed the Congress line when the YSR Congress moved a motion of no-confidence against the Kiran Kumar Reddy Government. And, by 2018, he created a ‘grand alliance’ by hobnobbing with the Congress and now leaders of the grand old party have no option but to praise him.
Thus, the Congress went in for alliance burying not only the hatchet and political differences, but every possible scruple. The Congress-TDP duo unveiled a new era of opportunistic politics. The relationship between the Congress and the TDP boiled down to “business of politics”.
In a bid to camouflage their unethical alliance, the Congress leaders have begun nit-picking. When KCR had said that he could take rest if the TRS loses as it was no personal loss to him. He lost no time in adding that the State’s interests would be sacrificed at the feet of Chandrababu Naidu and it’s for the people of Telangana to decide whether they wanted a rule where decisions were made amidst them or a rule where decisions were taken either at Delhi or Amaravati.
The Congress leaders have taken half the statement and Kodangal MLA Revanth Reddy tried to depict it as conceding of defeat by TRS. All this talk and effort to project a different picture on the eve of Sonia Gandhi’s visit is surely a bid to cover-up the CBI issue of K Laxma Reddy, which drew the attention of national media too.