It was a day of hectic political activity for the Congress with groups opposing the working style of TPCC president Revanth Reddy and those in favour of him sending signals of disapproval of each group’s loyalty to the party, though they argued that it was all in the interests of the Congress.
The ‘dissident’ leaders calling themselves ‘Congress loyalists’ met at a private hotel on Sunday at the initiation of former MP V. Hanumantha Rao and attended by Sangareddy MLA Jayaprakash Reddy, former Minister Marri Shashidhar Reddy and a few others. The only agenda seems to be raising a banner of revolt against Mr. Revanth Reddy, whom they accused of taking unilateral decisions, while expressing their support to the Congress high command.
Mr. Jagga Reddy later told reporters that they met only to discuss party affairs and how Mr. Revanth Reddy was not taking all the leaders along. He said that AICC in-charge of Telangana Manickam Tagore was playing a partisan role and the loyalists’ effort was to reach out to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as they don’t want “Punjab kind of developments” in Telangana Congress.
He said they wanted to caution the high command on the developments before it was too late. He said the problem was with Mr. Revanth Reddy and not with the party and he would remain Gandhi family loyalist forever.
Reacting to the demands of senior leaders’ suspension from the party, he said they would not be frightened by anyone and reach out to the high command in New Delhi. Mr. Marri Shashidhar Reddy too expressed similar views and said that this was not dissidence as is being played out. This was the second meeting after the one held at his residence a few days ago.
Even as the meeting was on, party leaders Addanki Dayakar, Bellaiah Naik and Manavata Roy walked into the hotel to urge the leaders not to play spoilsport and settle the differences within the party itself. As they walked in, all the senior leaders walked out ignoring them.
