Congress party president Rahul Gandhi’s announcement during his last public meeting at Saroornagar in Hyderabad on Tuesday evening that those who para-drop in the party from other parties would not be given tickets in the next elections came as a rude shock to the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee.
Rahul made the statement in the context of the party striving hard to come to power in the Telangana and several party leaders like Danam Nagender leaving the party in lurch.
He said the party would recognise the services of loyalists who had been standing by the party in the hour of crisis and give them tickets in the elections and not those who land in the party with parachute in the last moment.
Rahul’s statement came as a bombshell for leaders like Kodangal MLA A Revanth Reddy and former Nagarkurnool MLA Nagam Janardhan Reddy, while it created an embarrassing situation for PCC president Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who has been trying to bring back seniors and influential party leaders into the party before the elections.
There are speculations that seniors like former PCC president D Srinivas and a host of other leaders are planning to come back into the Congress party.
Uttam has also been saying that some other TRS MLAs are also in touch with him to join the Congress at an appropriate time. But with Rahul making such a statement, the inflow into the Congress will come down.
“We do not know under what context Rahul ji made the statement. We shall find out and discuss within the party,” Uttam said on Wednesday.
