War within Telangana Congress intensifies: 13 including MLA Seethakka resign from party posts

They sent a combined resignation letter to AICC's Telangana in-charge Manickam Tagore.

Hyderabad: The internal bickering in the Telangana unit of the Congress party took a dramatic turn on Sunday with 13 Congress leaders, most of them who joined the party from Telugu Desam Party and were given party posts recently, resigning from their posts protesting against the behaviour of senior party leaders. They sent a combined resignation letter to AICC’s Telangana in-charge Manickam Tagore. Following the resignation, the party high command has rushed three AICC secretaries to Hyderabad to resolve the issue.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy had called a preparatory meeting on Sunday at Gandhi Bhavan on the ‘Hath se Hath Jodo Yatra’, scheduled to begin from January 26. However, none of the senior leaders who participated in a meeting at CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka’s residence on Saturday turned up. Following this, 13 leaders, including supporters of Revanth Reddy, who joined Congress in the past from TDP, resigned from their posts. They stated that if their post was an issue for the disgruntled senior leaders, they were ready to give up the posts to keep the party united. The leaders who resigned from the posts include Mulugu MLA Danasari Anasuya alias Seethakka, Vem Narender Reddy, Vijay Rama Rao, C Venkatesh and Yerra Sekhar.

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In the four-page resignation letter, they said internal bickering in the party was sending wrong signal to the people of the State and would affect the prospects of the party in the forthcoming Assembly polls next year. “For us, bringing the party to power in the State is more important than posts,” they said.

The latest episode of internal bickering in the party intensified as senior leaders revolted against Revanth Reddy and announced a ‘Save Congress‘ plan on Saturday. Senior leaders including N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Madhu Goud Yashki and Damodar Raja Narasimha met at Bhatti Vikramarka’s residence and said a majority of recent appointees in the party committees were outsiders and former TDP leaders. Even Revanth Reddy, who succeeded Uttam Kumar Reddy in 2021, was with the TDP till 2017.

At the time of his appointment, too, there was a lot of discontent among leaders on how a newcomer was prioritised for the top post, overlooking veterans.
However, the latest provocation was when high command last week approved committees including executive and political affairs committees, in which many seniors were not included.

Senior leaders Malreddy Ranga Reddy, Addanki Dayakar and others took strong exception to the behaviour of the senior leaders, with Dayakar saying that senior leaders were unnecessarily targeting Revanth Reddy and weakening the party. TPCC vice president Mallu Ravi said it was an internal matter and that it would be resolved soon.