Fate of Praja Kutami hangs in balance

HYDERABAD: Though the Lok Sabha elections are barely three months away, the Congress is yet to find its feet after suffering a humiliating defeat in the recent Assembly elections. No one seems bothered to draft a road map for the party. For instance, there is no consensus on whether the Praja Kutami will continue for the Lok Sabha polls. With many Congress leaders opposing the alliance with the TDP after the drubbing the grand old party received, there is hardly any news on whether the modus vivendi will continue.

“I cannot say for now if Praja Kutami will continue or not,” TJS chief Prof M Kodandaram, who was a part of the alliance, said after its debacle. Then came party in-charge for Telangana RC Khuntia’s assertion that the Congress does not consider the TRS its main rival in the Lok Sabha elections as the “real” fight would be between the Congress and the BJP. At a national level, his argument might be right, but in Telangana, the BJP is no force at all — it won only one Assembly seat. On the other hand, the TRS has emerged indestructible and breaking it to win the Lok Sabha elections is easier said than done.

Though the party lies in tatters, Telangana Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, apparently not very bothered about the ongoing panchayat elections, has gone abroad. Many Congress leaders feel that he should have stayed in Hyderabad and infused confidence in his cadre.

The party is also suffering from its age-old problem of lack of unity. The party leaders are at loggerheads with one another, with former Union Minister Sarve Satyanarayana, fuming at Uttam Kumar Reddy and Khuntia, former CLP leader K Jana Reddy not seeing eye to eye with party senior leader K Venkata Reddy and former Minister DK Aruna picking fights with with former Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy.

To make matters worse for the Congress, quite a few of its MLAs are raring to join the TRS and are only waiting for assurances like berths in the Cabinet or Lok Sabha seats for their wards. “No one in our party is interested in gearing up the machinery for panchayat elections or Lok Sabba polls,” a senior Congress leader said.

For the Congress, facing the Lok Sabha elections is no easy task since the TRS has established  near total supremacy in Telangana.