In what could spell serious trouble for the Congress party amidst the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, there are reports of Telangana Congress leaders being upset with the state Congress president and general secretary Ramachandra Khuntia.
The grand old party is in a sorry state in Telangana with the situation becoming worse day-by-day due to the rift between senior and junior leadership. The rift came to fore on Saturday when a scuffle broke out between senior Congress leaders V Hanumantha Rao and Nagesh Mudhiraj during a protest held here by opposition parties, against the alleged goof-up of the state government in the intermediate results of Telangana state board.
Earlier Sarve Satyanarayana, former Union Minister was suspended by Uttam Kumar Reddy after he blamed him and Khuntia for party's defeat during a meeting held to analyse the election results in Malkajgiri parliamentary constituency. The former minister also allegedly hurled a water bottle at Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Chief Secretary Bollu Krishna.
In the recently held Assembly Elections in the state, Marri Shashidar Reddy, a four-time MLA and former minister was not given ticket by the Congress party. Marri Reddy blamed Uttam Kumar for the same accusing the state Congress president of backstabbing him.
Congress won just 19 out of 119 seats in the Assembly Elections but many of its MLAs have already defected to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party.
Another Congress leader Danam Nagender had left the party even before Assembly Elections and joined TRS. He went on to win from Khairatabad seat.
Similarly, senior Congress leader D K Aruna also left the party and joined BJP.
Notably, most of the leaders who left Congress blamed Uttam Kumar's and Khuntia's leadership. According to party sources, several MLAs are planning to quit the party in the absence of leadership and conflict between the party leaders.
In fact, some Congress leaders are reportedly unhappy by former Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Reventh Reddy entry into the party.
The silver lining for Congress is that Lok Sabha polls for all the 17 seats of the state were held in the first phase on April 11 itself.
Nevertheless, any such "untoward" developments could strike a severe blow to the party's hopes of a revival in the state.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)