Congress dumps Udaipur Declaration before polls, yet again

Chennur MLA G Vivek was offered a ticket to contest the Assembly elections and so was his brother Bellampally MLA G Vinod.

Hyderabad: The Udaipur Declaration of the Congress stresses on ensuring “One Family, One Ticket”, “One person, One post” and that turncoats should not be given prominence among other principles. However, when it comes to issuing tickets for elections and filling up positions, the Declaration, just like what happened before the Assembly elections, appears to have been dumped, triggering sharp criticism from leaders within the party.

Chennur MLA G Vivek was offered a ticket to contest the Assembly elections and so was his brother Bellampally MLA G Vinod. Now, the Congress party high command has issued the Peddapally Lok Sabha constituency ticket to Vivek’s son G Vamshikrishna, much to the dismay of several other local aspirants.

---

It was just three months ago that Vivek’s family joined the Congress.

“One family was offered three tickets and loyal leaders like me, who have been working for the party for 30 years, are being betrayed. Is this justifiable?” asked former Youth Congress national secretary and Peddapally ticket aspirant V Varaprasad.

“Our self respect is lost and this is humiliation. Despite Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu recommending my name, the party leadership is not considering my candidature. In protest, on April 5, I will take up a deeksha at Peddapally headquarters,” Varaprasad said.

This was not an isolated case. Recently, BJP leader and former MP AP Jithender Reddy joined the Congress. He was offered two posts, including Special Representative in New Delhi and Advisor to Government (Sports Affairs).

A few have even approached the court seeking disqualification of turncoats. Soon after Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender, who won the elections representing the BRS, joined the Congressm, he was offered the Secunderabad Lok Sabha ticket.

Congress leader Raju Yadav demanded that Danam Nagender should resign as MLA and then contest the Lok Sabha elections. Since he shifted loyalties, he should be disqualified and a representation to this effect was submitted to Speaker G Prasad Kumar, however, there was no action, he alleged.

“As the Speaker failed to initiate action, a petition has been filed in the High Court,” the former corporator said.

Similarly, T Jeevan Reddy, who had contested the Assembly elections from Jagtial constituency, had lost to BRS candidate Sanjay Kumar. Despite, there being a rule in the Congress party that candidates who lose elections should not be given an opportunity to contest other elections, the AICC picked him as Nizamabad Lok Sabha candidate.

Interestingly, when former MLA Sampath Kumar had sought the Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha ticket, the party leadership had pointed out that he lost the Assembly elections from Alampur.