Hyderabad: Former minister and senior Congress legislator Komatireddy Venkata Reddy on Saturday launched a no-holds-barred attack on TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, saying that he was unfit to lead the party in the state.
Mr Venkata Reddy’s comments came amidst rumours that he planned to leave the Congress and join the ruling TRS. Addressing a news conference at the CLP office soon after reaching the city from a foreign trip, the senior leader said that the Telangana Congress cannot survive if it continued to display a lack of initiative and fighting spirit under the leadership of Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy.
“Appointing Ponnala Lakshmaiah as PCC chief was wrong as he never participated in the Telangana movement, and replacing him with Uttam Kumar Reddy was another major mistake by the AICC. I haven’t come across a PCC president who never countered any electoral challenge posed by the TRS, be it in Warangal, Narayankhed, GHMC or Palair,” he said. Mr Venkata Reddy said that a leader should always accept political challenges and display a fighting spirit. “Unfortunately, Uttam lacks both,” he said.
The senior leader said that he would be writing to AICC president Sonia Gandhi on the sorry state of affairs in the Telangana Congress and will demand that the party names a Chief Ministerial candidate for the 2019 elections so that the cadre is motivated. Citing Bihar and Assam Assembly elections, he said being a small state, TS also needs the Congress to name its Chief Ministerial candidate to take on the TRS. Replying to a question, Mr Venkata Reddy said that the Congress was not going to survive as long as Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy continued as PCC chief.
He accused the PCC chief of backstabbing his brother Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy during the last general elections and held him responsible for losing the seat. He also criticised Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy for selecting party MP Nandi Yellaiah as the in-charge for the bypoll to the Warangal Lok Sabha seat, a seat considered a bastion of the TRS.
