Telangana Congress leaders fear RSS takeover

The slogans, which also decried the entry of Kandi Srinivas Reddy into the party from the BJP, assumed significance in the backdrop of the assertions of the BRS, that TPCC president A Revanth Reddy was an RSS man who had managed to get into the top post of the Congress in the State.

Hyderabad: An unusual fear has gripped Congress leaders in the State, one that became evident during a protest at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday.
The protest was by Congress leaders from Adilabad, and the protest was against the TPCC welcoming a BJP leader to join the party. The slogans were what made the protest different, and what revealed what was in the minds of Congress leaders and workers in the State: “RSS Hatao – Congress Bachao”.

The slogans, which also decried the entry of Kandi Srinivas Reddy into the party from the BJP, assumed significance in the backdrop of the assertions of the BRS, that TPCC president A Revanth Reddy was an RSS man who had managed to get into the top post of the Congress in the State.

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Holding ‘RSS Hatao – Congress Bachao’ placards and raising slogans, the Adilabad Congress leaders demanded that people with RSS ideology should not be given entry into the party, leave aside assuring tickets to them to contest the forthcoming Assembly elections.

Adilabad District Congress Committee president Sajid Khan, Gandra Sujatha and Sanjeev Reddy were aspiring for a ticket to contest from Adilabad. However, Srinivas Reddy, an NRI and former BJP leader, joined the Congress and is seeking a ticket to contest from the constituency. This has obviously not gone well with the Adilabad leaders, who want the State leadership to issue tickets to anyone of Sajid Khan, Sujatha or Sanjeev Reddy but not to ‘parachute’ leaders.

The State leadership should accord top priority to leaders, who have been loyal and serving the party since long. Allotment of tickets to ‘parachute’ leaders would not be tolerated at any cost, they said. A similar protest was conducted at Adilabad as well on Friday night.

They also alleged that leaders following RSS ideology were being backed by a few senior leaders within the Congress. The RSS factor appears to be snowballing into a major concern for the State Congress.

AIMIM Floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi on Friday had challenged the TPCC president to take an oath at the famous Bhagyalakshmi temple, Charminar to deny his RSS links and also promise that he did not have interest in the RSS ideology anymore. BRS leaders, right from KT Rama Rao to Harish Rao, too have pointing out this, with Rama Rao also publicising a letter written by former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to Sonia Gandhi, asking how a person affiliated to the RSS was given the party’s top post in Telangana.