The TRS leaders are busy in Huzurnagar with an eye on the soon-to-be-held bypolls. CM KCR is in Siddipet on a four-district tour to drum up support for the party especially in the wake of the rebellion by Eatala Rajender. The BJP is working hard to win Huzurabad and all key leaders are busy strategising. But, what are the Congress leaders doing?

Surprise…surprise. None of the key leader is in Telangana. Everyone who matters in the Congress Party is now camping in Delhi. The reason? To lobby for the Telangana PCC chief post. Key leaders like Nalgonda MP Komatireddy Rajagopala Reddy, Secunderabad MP Revanth Reddy, former minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu, MLC Jeevan Reddy are all camping in New Delhi. They are trying pull all the levers to bag the post of PCC chief.

Insiders say the PCC chief would be announced in a week’s time and the high command is busy studying the possible names for the PCC chief’s post. So, every leader is trying his luck. One leader is busy spoiling the chances of these candidates. He wants a BC to become PCC chief. But, he doesn’t have any name except his own to offer. This leader is V Hanumantha Rao.

For the past one week, all these leaders are staying put in Delhi and are trying to secure the appointment of key leaders. They are trying to argue their case as the PCC chief.

Meanwhile, the PCC chief’s post has been vacant for quite some time. Though Uttam Kumar Reddy is there, he is a stop-gap arrangement and has time and again expressed his willingness to step down. But, the high command is unable to find a suitable replacement. Covid and Nagarjunasagar bypoll too have delayed the appointment. The Congress workers feel that it is time that the high command acted decisively and announced a name for the PCC chief’s post.

Seven years after formation of Telangana as a separate state, Congress party is still struggling to regain the lost ground in its former stronghold.

The party’s defeat in the recent by-election to Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly constituency shows that its fortunes in the state continue to plummet.

Reeling under defections of a dozen MLAs to ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) since 2018 Assembly polls and series of electoral debacles since, Congress is facing its worst crisis.

The emergence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the main opposition party following its victory in Dubbak Assembly by-election and its impressive performance in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls late last year has only added to woes of Congress party.

With the central leadership of the grand old party taking no step to set the house in order in Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), which remained virtually headless following resignation of Uttam Kumar Reddy in December last year, the party appears to be in a total disarray.

Political analysts say that bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh by granting statehood to Telangana was itself a political gamble by the Congress to arrest the slide in its traditional stronghold. The party was hoping to remain afloat at least in Telangana by claiming credit for carving out the separate state.

However, TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao dashed its hopes by rejecting the proposal to merge his party with Congress. He decided to maintain the identity of TRS as a political party and vowed to transform newly created state into ‘Bangaru Telangana’ or golden Telangana.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, succeeded in claiming credit for achieving the goal of separate state by winning the public mandate. In 2014 elections, held just before formal bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, TRS won 63 seats in 119-member Telangana Assembly.

The Congress party, which was completely wiped out in Andhra Pradesh due to the public anger over bifurcation, could win 22 seats. However, the party failed to keep its flock together as several of its leaders defected to TRS.

In 2018 Assembly elections, held a few months before the term of the Assembly was to end, Congress faced a disaster. It could win just 19 seats, though it had forged electoral alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and other TRS opponents.

However, the worst was yet to come for the party. Even before it could gear up for Lok Sabha elections in 2019, it had lost as many as 12 MLAs to the ruling party. Though the party salvaged some pride by winning three Lok Sabha seats, with the reduced strength in Assembly it lost the status of main opposition to Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), a friendly party of TRS.

The party suffered a huge embarrassment as it failed to retain Huzurnagar Assembly seat, where by-election was necessitated with the resignation of Uttam Kumar Reddy following his election to Lok Sabha.

The TRS wrested the seat from Congress as its candidate S. Saidi Reddy was elected with a huge margin of over 43,000 votes. Uttam’s wife N. Padmavathi Reddy finished a distant runner-up.

It was in September last year that the AICC named Manickam Tagore as new incharge for Telangana, replacing R. C. Khuntia. However, even his appointment could not stop the party’s slide in the state.

The BJP, which became aggressive following its impressive performance in Lok Sabha polls by winning four seats, added to the worries of Congress. Projecting itself as the only viable alternative, the saffron party started making inroads with ‘Mission 2023′.

The BJP wrested Dubbak from TRS to further consolidate itself. The saffron party, which hardly had any presence in the constituency, pushed Congress party to third position.

The Congress party suffered another humiliation a month later as it could win just two seats in 150-member Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). In its best-ever performance in the civic body, the BJP bagged 48 seats to deny the TRS a clear majority.

The emergence of BJP as the main opposition party sent alarm bells ringing. Owning moral responsibility for the defeat, Uttam Kumar Reddy resigned as the party chief.

The party suffered more blows as it lost several leaders to BJP. They included D. K. Aruna, who was later made national vice president of BJP and actress Vijayashanti.

The beleaguered party faced another jolt late last year when its MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy announced that he would quit the Congress and join the BJP soon.

Rajagopal Reddy stated that the BJP is the only alternative to TRS, as the Congress party had failed to put up a strong fight.

If Rajagopal Reddy defects to the BJP, the Congress will be left with just five MLAs in the Assembly.

Former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, who resigned TRS to join Congress on the eve of 2018 elections, recently quit Congress party and is now working to bring together non-BJP and non-Congress parties against TRS.

Even after six months, the central leadership of Congress party has not named a new state president. The groupism in the party came to fore with leaders lobbying for the posts publicly targeting each other to mar the prospects of their rivals.

Fearing that change of leadership would impact the party’s chances in Nagarjuna Sagar by-election, the high command delayed naming Uttam Kumar Reddy’s successor.
The Congress party was pinning its hopes on this by-election to revive its fortunes in the state. Its leaders were confident that senior leader and former minister K. Jana Reddy will wrest the seat from TRS to give the party a new hope.

However, Jana Reddy, a seven-time MLA lost by over 18,000 votes to TRS debutant Nomula Bhagat, whose father Nomula Narasimhaiah had defeated the Congress leader in 2018.

Narasimhaiah’s death in December last year caused the vacancy and the by-election was held on April 17.

The only solace for the Congress party was that it finished runners-up and BJP was distant third with its candidate forfeiting his deposit.

Political analysts say while it’s not all over for the Congress party, it is facing an uphill challenge to revive past glory in the country and especially in Telangana.

“The party’s decline at the central stage has weakened its position in this State too. But it can revive its position, and the upcoming elections could be one last opportunity to not lost further ground,” said analyst Palwai Raghavendra Reddy.

“Congress still has a fixed vote bank in the country, and more so in Telangana. The party has to ensure it does not slip further and lose its loyal cadre to the ruling TRS or the BJP, which aims to occupy at least the position of main opposition in Telangana,” he said.

The analyst says Congress was suffering due to the delay in naming the new leader and lack of a popular face. “Congress needs to first decide on who would be the face of the party in the next elections, bind all leaders together with the common goal to win in the State. The party should try to ensure that no more prominent leaders leave Congress, but if there are any trojan horses in its ranks, they need to be weeded out sooner than later,” he added.

Telangana’s opposition Congress on Friday submitted a memorandum to Governor, Dr Tamilisai Soundarajan, seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the killing of advocate couple.

A delegation of party leaders led by state party chief Uttam Kumar Reddy met the Governor at Raj Bhavan and submitted her a memorandum for a court-monitored CBI probe into the gruesome murder of Gattu Vaman Rao and his wife Nagamani, who were practicing at the Telangana High Court.

The couple were waylaid and brutally hacked to death in full public view by two assailants in Peddapalli district on February 17.

Police have so far arrested four accused including a mandal-level leader of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), who has been since suspended from the party, and the nephew of another TRS leader and Zilla Parishad chairman Putta Madhu.

Reddy, who is also a Member of Parliament, alleged that the murders are an attack on the legal community to silence them and “prevent them from exposing the massive corruption and misuse of state power”.

The Congress leader alleged that the advocates were murdered to prevent the truth from coming out in the death of Seelam Rangaiah, a Dalit, in police custody.

Reddy told reporters that the Governor responded positively to their demand for the CBI probe.

Alleging that the ruling party leaders are involved in the murder, he said the police were not probing their role.

The state Congress chief said the couple was killed in a pre-planned manner as they had approached the High Court for justice in Dalit youth’s death in police custody and they were also proving hurdle for TRS leaders’ illegal activities in Manthani.

Reddy claimed that Vaman Rao was silenced as he was gearing up for a fight over illegal mining of sand worth Rs 4,000 crore from the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project.

He said Vaman Rao was also exposing the Putta Lingamma Charitable Trust for illegally mobilising funds.

The High Court, which took suo moto cognizance of the double murder on February 18, directed the government to conduct thorough investigation and submit a status report by March 1.

The Dubbaka triangular contest is turning out to be interesting with all the parties in the fray taking the bypolls prestigious. TRS leader Cheruku Srinivas Reddy and son of former minister Cheruku Muthyam Reddy, defected from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to join the Congress Party ahead of the elections.

Two Congress leaders from Dubbaka gave shock to the party by joining the ruling TRS. The two Congress leaders – Komatireddy Venkateswara Reddy and B Manohar Rao – joined the TRS in the presence of finance minister Harish Rao and MP Kotha Prabhakar.

The two leaders joined the party along with 2,000 party supporters which is likely to impact the prospects of the Congress Party ahead of the bypolls. The Congress is making all out efforts to wrest the Dubbaka seat from the TRS with the Telangana party president Uttam Kumar Reddy, MPs Revanth Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka hitting the roads for an extensive campaign.

Welcoming the two party leaders, Harish Rao said the Congress Party has become bankrupt with the joining of Komatireddy Venkateswara Reddy and B Manohar Rao.

“TRS government introduced Kalyan Lakshmi Shadi Mubarak scheme to provide financial assistance for marriages of the poor. We have been disburing Rs 1,00,116. So far, the TRS government conducted more than 7 lakh marriages under Kalyan Lakshmi Shadi Mubarak scheme. I want to ask the Congress Party if such a scheme was introduced by the Congress governments in Punjab, Pondicherry and Maharasthra,” Harish Rao asked.

Further, Harish Rao slammed TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy for calling Solipeta Sujatha Reddy, wife of late four-time MLA Ramalinga Reddy, as an inefficient leader. Dubbaka Assembly constituency which fell vacant following the sudden demise of sitting MLA Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy. The TRS appears confident to retain the seat as it has fielded Sujatha on sympathy factor.

Harish Rao, who has been running an intensive campaign visiting villages in Dubbaka, exuded confidence that the TRS will retain the seat by a margin of over one lakh votes.

The BJP has fielded Raghunandan Rao. Minister of State for Home Kishan Reddy, BJP national vice-president D K Aruna and Telangana party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar are banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image which is unlikely to be a factor in the local elections. The bypoll notification for Dubbaka will be issued on October 9. The last date for filing nominations will be October 16. The last date for withdrawal of candidatures will be October 19. The entire election process will be completed before November 12.

The main opposition Congress party in Telangana on Monday staged protests across the state, demanding the state government waive electricity bills for the entire lockdown period for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families and small businesses.

Leaders led the black flag protests in Hyderabad and 32 other districts against inflated electricity bills for the last three months. They submitted memorandums to the electricity authorities not to impose burden on common man.

State Congress chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy led a rally in Hyderabad from party headquarters Gandhi Bhavan to Vidyut Soudha, the head office of electricity generation and distribution companies.

Wearing black badges and holding black flags and lanterns in their hands, the protesters raised slogans against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao.

A party delegation submitted memorandum to the officials of Telangana State Transmission Corporation, demanding that the bills of BPL families and micro, small and medium enterprises be waived.

Talking to reporters, Reddy said instead of coming to the rescue of people during the pandemic time, the government added burden on them by high electricity bills.

He demanded that the government immediately rectify the error in the bills and lessen the burden on all categories of consumers.

Senior leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir said since the lockdown impacted the income of all categories of consumers, the government should take sympathetic views of their problems and reduce burden on them.

“The electricity bills of June were highly unjustified. They were not only inflated and exorbitant, but also prepared in an erroneous manner. Of the 95 lakh power consumers in Telangana, nearly 75 lakh are in the domestic category and almost 80 per cent of them use less than 200 units a month,” Uttam Kumar Reddy wrote in a letter to the chief minister on Sunday.

He said distribution companies generated bills based on the overall consumption of 90 days, in violation of the Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) guidelines.

The Nalgonda MP stated that consumers have been asked to pay Rs 9 per unit instead of usual Rs 4.3 due to the change in slab based on the total number of units consumed in the 90-day period.

He demanded that the government shift to the telescopic method of billing instead of continuing with the current non-telescopic method. He alleged that despite lakhs of consumers raising complaints about the errors in their electricity bills, no corrective measure was taken.