Telangana Assembly Elections: Congress leaders exodus

Telangana Congress faces setbacks as leaders exit and public backlash grows, causing concern during Rahul Gandhi's State campaign

Hyderabad: Much to the dismay of Telangana Congress, the exodus of many leaders and the backlash from people at few places is leaving the party worried, especially when Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is campaigning in the State.

On Thursday, Rahul Gandhi campaigned in Peddapally and conducted a bike rally. However, ZPTC Ghanta Ramulu Yadav, TPCC member and senior leader Satyanarayana Reddy, V Rammurthy and others quit the party, citing no recognition to their loyalty.

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Ghanta Ramulu was aspiring ticket to contest from Peddapally but the party offered ticket to Vijayaramana Rao. They alleged that TPCC president A Revanth Reddy was setting aside party interests. He was according top priority to his followers and running his own agenda in the party in the guise of survey results, said Ghanta Ramulu.

Echoing similar opinion, Satyanarayana Reddy said neither the State leadership nor party high command had consulted them before finalizing Vijayaramana Rao’s candidature from the constituency.

“This has affected our self respect and we will not continue in the party. We will finalise our future action plan in a couple of days” said Satyanarayana Reddy.

At Asifabad, Shyam Naik, who claimed to be Congress candidate, hit the streets to campaign, faced local people’s backlash. Dr Ganesh Rathod and M Saraswathi had also applied for the party ticket.

Such was the Gundi village residents’ ire against the Congress party, they forced Shyam Naik to remove the Congress scarf and directed him to leave the village immediately.

He faced similar treatment at Daboli village in Jainur mandal, where residents boycotted the Congress leader and made to him stop the campaign.

At Gadwal, District Congress Committee president Patel Prabhakar Reddy quit the Congress alleging State leadership’s negligence towards the leaders in the districts. His supporters burnt flexis and banners in the party, besides damaging the furniture.

All this was just done after the party Congress released first list of 55 candidates. Now, the party leaders are getting worried over the reaction from leaders after the second list would be released in a couple of days.