Congress undecided on continuing tie-up with TDP: RC Khuntia

HYDERABAD: While the Congress and the TDP share good relations, it cannot be decided if the two parties will continue their partnership in Telangana, AICC in-charge general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in Telangana RC Khuntia said during a candid chat with TNIE’s editorial team on Sunday.

“The Congress will go it alone in the panchayat elections here. [AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu] Naidu may field a candidate in Odisha. If so, we may have to decide whether to ally with the TDP there,” he said.
Telangana Congress leaders had strongly disapproved of continuing the alliance with the yellow party after their debacle in the Assembly elections. Leaders of the grand old party continue to pin the blame for the fall on the TDP, with Congress leader from Nalgonda Komatireddy Venkat Reddy brashly hitting out at Naidu’s team on Saturday, thirty days after the elections. “I, for one, do not subscribe to the opinion,” said Khuntia, who had hours back wrapped up a three-day stock-taking exercise dissecting the Congress’s collapse in the elections.

The Congress has learnt its lesson and put in place a strategy for the Lok Sabha and panchayat polls, Khuntia said. “The parliamentary election is another ball game altogether,” he said, “The contest will be between [Congress president] Rahul Gandhi and [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will have little role to play in national politics,” he said.The Congress leader downplayed Rao’s victory, saying there was nothing great in winning a second term. “There are many leaders who have been in power for 15 to 25 years.”

‘KCR doesn’t matter at Centre, NDA is our rival’

AICC in-charge general secretary for Telangana, RC Khuntia asserted that the party would not be boggled down by their poor performance in the Assembly polls and were now completely focused on the forthcoming elections. “There will be a series of meetings in the future. Our focus will be on how to outdo the Bharatiya Janata Party, not the TRS. K Chandrasekhar Rao does not matter at all at the national level. The NDA  is our rival. We hope to win a majority in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Telangana,” he quipped.  

The AICC leaders, however, admitted that announcing candidates two months after the TRS did was a mistake and indicated that the party would not dilly dally in the future. The Grand Alliance of Congress, TDP, TJS and CPI took a considerable amount of time to come to an agreement.

When asked about the fate of the party’s grand old leaders who had been flayed and blamed for the Congress’s drubbing in the recent elections, he said, “A decision will be taken in consultation with the All India Congress Committee,” but made it clear that he thought demands for the removal of leaders above the age of 70 years who had not won the Assembly elections to make way for youngsters was a mistake.
“Rahul Gandhi always encourages youth, then why should stalwarts be removed?”