Factionalism within Congress leaves cadre in a fix in Telangana’s Patancheru

Cadre divided into three groups led by Kata Srinivas Goud, Gudem Mahipal Reddy and Neelam Madhu

Sangareddy: Factions within the Congress in Patancheru constituency have left the cadre in a fix. The Congress cadre was divided into three groups in the constituency. While a faction of the cadre was moving with party constituency in-charge Kata Srinivas Goud, two other factions were moving with MLA Gudem Mahipal Reddy and Neelam Madhu, respectively.

While Kata was an old horse of Congress in the constituency, Neelam Madhu joined the party before the Lok Sabha elections. He got the opportunity to contest on the party ticket from the Medak Lok Sabha constituency for a losing cause.

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Mahipal Reddy, who had won from Patancheru three times in a row on a BRS ticket, defected to the Congress post the General elections. However, he had never participated in Congress’ official programmes. It seems the differences further flared up between these two groups over the recent transfers and postings of police officers.

Mahipal Reddy, who was in the good books of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and other party top brass, had his say in getting posts to his loyal police officers recently. Reddy had some challenging times immediately after the Congress came to power.

The police officials, who reportedly got posts with the help of Kata Srinivas Goud, had filed multiple cases on Reddy and his younger brother Madhusudhan Reddy.

The MLA, who met the Chief Minister recently, had reportedly pursued him to give some key posts to his loyal officers in the Patancheru constituency. It immediately flared up the differences between Kata and Mahipal Reddy. Kata, who went to Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday, raised his voice against the party leadership, accusing them of favouring Mahipal Reddy, who suppressed the Congress in Patancheru for more than a decade.

He further alleged that the officers, who suppressed the Congress in Patancheru, were getting key postings now with the help of the MLA. He met Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka and other Congress leaders and complained to them.

Meanwhile, Mahipal Reddy and Kata had stayed away from Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president B Mahesh Goud’s meeting held in Sangareddy this week.

On the other hand, Neelam Madhu was moving closely with all the top leaders of the party and building his own cadre silently. Neither in-charge Minister Konda Surekha nor district Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha put any effort in sorting out these differences while they look to damage the party in the constituency.