Congress’ ‘Satyagraha Deeksha’ brings internal differences to fore in Khammam

Khammam: Even as the AICC leadership advised its leaders in Telangana to iron out internal differences among them and to work collectively, the party leaders made a glaring display of groupism in erstwhile Khammam district. Internal differences among the leaders in the district came to the fore on Monday in a glaring manner during the […]

Khammam: Even as the AICC leadership advised its leaders in Telangana to iron out internal differences among them and to work collectively, the party leaders made a glaring display of groupism in erstwhile Khammam district. Internal differences among the leaders in the district came to the fore on Monday in a glaring manner during the ‘Satyagraha Deeksha’ staged by the party ranks all over Khammam and Kothagudem districts following a call by the TPCC in protest against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme.

Former minister Renuka Chowdary, who was supposed to lead the deeksha in Khammam city skipped the protest. Former minister Sambani Chandrashekar, who was supposed to lead the protest at Sathupalli staged the deeksha in Khammam along with former MP V Hanumantha Rao who was assigned to lead the protest at Amberpet in Hyderabad. The party Spokesperson K Manavatha Roy, who was assigned to lead the protest at Khairatabad in Hyderabad staged the deeksha at Ambedkar Centre at Sathupalli in Khammam where the followers of former minister Chandrashekar staged the deeksha at municipal office.

In Kothagudem three groups led by Adavelli Krishna, Potla Nageshwar Rao and Naga Seetharamulu staged the deeksha separately at the party office, bus stand centre and railway station much to the confusion of the local cadres. At Aswaraopet where a follower of Renuka Chowdary, Satyanarana Chowdary and the CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s follower Chennakeshava Rao staged the deeksha separately. The party senior leader EV Srinivas Rao, in-charge of the protest had to sit in the deeksha camps of both the leaders.

The same was the situation at other places with an exception to Manugur where the mandal party president G Gopi led the protest. On the other hand, Aswaraopet Congress leaders like Sunnam Nagamani and others have opposed the entry of former MLA Thati Venkateshwarlu into Congress from TRS. The leaders met Bhatti Vikramarka and the TPCC president A Revanth Reddy on Sunday expressing displeasure at Venkateshwarlu joining the party without any prior information to the mandal leaders. Reddy reportedly told them to have a meeting later to sort out the differences.

Meanwhile Bhatti Vikramarka who staged the deeksha at Madhira and Wyra alleged that because of the Modi government’s faulty policies youth in the country were getting attracted to violence to express their dissent. He demanded the Centre to immediately withdraw the Agnipath scheme and said it was wrong to introduce a contract hiring system in the military. The BJP introduced the scheme to infuse the armed forces with RSS activists, he alleged.