Confusion reigns in Telangana Congress as Meenakshi Natarajan, Revanth Reddy run parallel administrations

AICC Telangana incharge holds meetings with MLAs, senior leaders from erstwhile Adilabad, Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts, while Chief Minister suddenly hosts dinner meeting for Ministers at his residence on the same day

Hyderabad: With AICC Telangana incharge Meenakshi Natarajan and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy holding parallel meetings with Ministers and senior leaders, the cadre is perplexed over the state of affairs in the party.

On Wednesday, Natarajan held meetings with MLAs and senior leaders from erstwhile Adilabad, Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts. Interestingly, the Chief Minister suddenly hosted a dinner meeting for Ministers at his residence. It is learnt that the AICC incharge also attended the meeting.

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Both the AICC incharge and the Chief Minister discussed the party affairs, especially measures to be adopted for the ensuing local body elections and others. They are believed to have sought feedback from Ministers and leaders over issues in the party, coordination issues among different leaders and MLAs, and implementation of government schemes, among other matters.

However, these simultaneous meetings are leaving leaders and cadre baffled. Already, a section of leaders in the party have expressed their reservations over the Chief Minister convening secret, district-wise meetings with MLAs.

It may be recalled that last month, the AICC incharge had held a few meetings with a couple of Ministers, employees and students of the Hyderabad Central University over the Kancha Gachibowli land row. This had not gone down well with the Chief Minister’s camp and there were reports in a section of media, invoking the ‘Telugu pride’ and alleging that the high command was undermining the duly elected Chief Minister.

As speculations are rife over an announcement on the Cabinet expansion, appointment of the TPCC executive committee and filling of nominated posts, aspirants and senior leaders are keeping their fingers crossed.

Setting aside the State leadership’s directions to refrain from issuing public statements, a few aspirants are lobbying hard in New Delhi. In the past, Ibrahimpatnam MLA Malreddy Rangareddy had gone to Delhi to press for his candidature in the Cabinet berth. Chennur MLA Gaddam Vivek Venkat Swamy is using his channels to impress the high command and a few Madiga community MLAs were also likely to meet the AICC leaders in New Delhi on Thursday and make a similar appeal.

Meanwhile, a few former Sarpanches, after finding no response to their demands from the State government and the party’s State leadership, directly met Natarajan on Wednesday. Apart from them, party leaders and other sections are also meeting Natarajan and discussing their issues, clearly indicating that trust on the State leadership was eroding.