Adilabad: Internal bickering likely to affect prospects of Congress nominee

Supporters of Kandi Srinivas Reddy, who was the Congress candidate in Adilabad for the Assembly polls, on Wednesday launched a protest against induction of leaders like DCC president Sajid Khan, aspirant Gandrath Sujatha, former DCC chief Bhargav Deshpandey, and former agriculture market committee chairman Sanjeeva Reddy.

Adilabad: Internal bickering among leaders of the Congress, a perennial challenge for the party, is likely to affect prospects of its candidate in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

Supporters of Kandi Srinivas Reddy, who was the Congress candidate in Adilabad for the Assembly polls, on Wednesday launched a protest against induction of leaders like DCC president Sajid Khan, aspirant Gandrath Sujatha, former DCC chief Bhargav Deshpandey, and former agriculture market committee chairman Sanjeeva Reddy. They raised slogans against the three leaders and the party for taking them back after suspending them earlier.

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The agitating supporters demanded expulsion of the four leaders for cheating the party by colluding with the BJP and BRS during the Assembly polls. They attributed the defeat of Srinivas Reddy to Sanjeeva Reddy contesting as a rebel.

They wanted continuation of the six-year suspension imposed on Sujatha, Deshpandey, Sajid Khan and Sanjeeva Reddy, cautioning that they would intensify a stir if the party did not withdraw its decision to revoke the suspension. They also threatened to tender mass resignations and pointed out that these leaders had accused TPCC president A Revanth Reddy of selling tickets.

The trio Sajid, Sujatha, Deshpandey and Sanjeev were suspended for anti-party activities during the recent Assembly polls. However, they were welcomed into the outfit as part of efforts to strengthen the party by lifting the suspension recently, drawing the ire of Srinivas Reddy and his supporters. Srinivas Reddy had already alleged that he lost because of the four.

An NRI, Srinivas Reddy contested on the ticket of the Congress from Adilabad Assembly segment and stood in the third spot with 47,724 votes.