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Irate Cong men lash out at Azad

Saye Sekhar | January 23, 2012 | 0 Comments

The AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad’s visit to the City for the second round of coordination committee was muddled in controversies, as several Congress leaders threw tantrums over his visit itself. Wittingly or unwittingly, the Congress leadership raised curtains to a caste-based debate within the rank and file of the party.

Even as Azad was gearing up to meet the members of the coordination committee on the very first day on Saturday, Guntur MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao became the first to drop a bombshell, expressing anguish over the shabby treatment being meted out to ‘Kammas’, the ruling community in the Telugu Desam Party.

“We have been fortifying the party for several decades. Ever since the TDP came into being, our support became even more crucial. But we feel dejected and let down as the party is not offering any positions to us in recognition of our services. We are a poorly relegated community,” he told reporters in the Secretariat.

He drew the attention of the AICC general secretary not because he expressed his anguish, but because he obliquely referred to the growing strength of YSR’s son Jagan. He endorsed the observations of senior Congress MLA Gade Venkata Reddy (Bapatla in Guntur district) that Jagan possessed leadership qualities.

His magic worked and the matter was discussed in the coordination committee. That whether any more Kammas would be accommodated in any positions of power is a different story. As if to counter the Rayapati tomfooleries, Azad wangled an invite for breakfast at the residence of Renuka Chowdary, the party’s stormy petrel of yesteryear.

The presence of deputy CM Damodar C Raja Narsimha, minister Danam Nagender and TNGO leaders provided a dash of anti-Kiran Kumar Reddy colour to the breakfast diplomacy. Renuka used this as an opportunity to tell the media that the Congress was not ignoring Kammas and that she had “crossed the stage of asking for positions.” She also told Azad in confidence that the party should not ignore Kammas if it wanted to stop the TDP’s comeback trail in its tracks.

Meanwhile, the Congress cadres are sulking over the induction of two Kapus from Chiranjeevi quota into the Cabinet. Most leaders did not mince words in asserting this. Chengalrayudu, a Congress MLC, said Reddy community, which was carrying the party on its shoulders, might go adrift and join hands with Jagan, as the Congress leadership is singing paeans to Chiranjeevi.

The proximity of APCC president Botsa Satyanarayana to Chiranjeevi, as both belong to Kapu community, too became a hot topic of debate.

Amalapuram MP GV Harsha Kumar went a step ahead and criticised the ‘private parties’ and ‘private meetings’ of Azad. One such meeting at Taj Krishna was supposed to be part of Azad’s effort to find a groom for his daughter.

The MP, who spewed venom at the non-inclusion of Malas and scheduled tribes in the coordination committee, launched fireworks at Azad. Meanwhile, the allocation of the portfolio of ports to shipping business tycoon Ganta Srinivasa Rao also came under severe criticism.

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