Focus: Congress Unhappy With Party's Telangana Leaders?

By Ramesh Reddy | Hyderabad

The Congress high command is said to be very disappointed with the inability of its Telangana leaders to derive political mileage from the decision to accord statehood to the region.

Hence, the AICC top brass has decided to swing into action and hold a massive public meeting in Hyderabad soon after the passage of the T-Bill in Parliament, somewhere in February. The meeting, which is aimed at taking credit for the Centre’s T-decision, will be addressed by party supremo Sonia Gandhi.
According to sources, during the meeting, the AICC supremo will blow the poll bugle, saying her party has kept its election promise on granting statehood to Telangana.With the 2014 general elections approaching, the movers and shakers of the AICC have begun assessing the party’s electoral fortunes in the state.

Since the party’s decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh has almost ruined it’s prospects in Seemandhra, the AICC high command has all these days pinned its hopes on Telangana.

However, the Congress Delhi bosses are understood to be upset with the failure of Telangana Congress leaders in reaping political gain out of the T-decision.

The AICC leadership is reportedly of the view that its leaders in Telangana are confining themselves to issuing  media statements praising Sonia Gandhi instead of trying to translate the party’s T-decision into votes.

The party high command’s unhappiness has been revealed to some state Congress leaders, who recently met their Delhi bosses.

On Thursday, when former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir called on AICC State affairs incharge Digvijaya Singh in Delhi, the latter reportedly expressed his dissatisfaction over the failure of T-Congress leaders in organising a massive campaign across Telangana to convey to the people that the Centre is delivering Telangana state at the behest of Sonia Gandhi.

After meeting Singh in Delhi, Shabbir Ali told the media that his party high command was not happy over the way his peers in Telangana were confining themselves to Hyderabad.

“Digvijaya Singh has expressed displeasure over our inability to consolidate the party’s position in Telangana. He has asked me to tell my peers to start meeting people so as to derive political mileage,” he said. According to him, Singh also asked Shabbir to tell him exactly how many seats will the party win in 2014 polls in Telangana.

“The AICC general secretary also wanted to know why we have suddenly stopped holding public meetings across the region,” he said.

Apart from Shabbir Ali, some other Congress leaders, who recently met their party top brass in Delhi, acknowledged this privately.

“All these days our party high command has been confident that its decision to bifurcate AP would bring electoral dividends in Telangana. But, they are now worried that without the merger of TRS with Congress, its T-decision might not bring any political gain,” a Seemandhra minister said.