Anantapur: The internal bickering between Congress leaders and ministers has made party cadres and the leadership jittery.
Union minister of state for railways Kotla Jayasuryaprakash Reddy, for example, has been continuing to take potshots at minor irrigation minister T.G. Venkatesh over violation of protocol and for talking about leaving the Congress for political mileage.
Reddy has been pointing out that Venkatesh, who is also the Kurnool MLA, has been lobbying to shift to Telugu Desam instead of strengthening the Congress. He said that the state ministers were enjoying their positions only with the blessings of the Congress.
“It is shameful that despite being ministers in power, they are thinking of shifting to another party,” he said.
The Kurnool MP and MLA have been keeping a distance from each other. The MP, Union minister of state, Jayasuryaprakash Reddy, was angry about violation of protocol by Venkatesh, who has been inaugurating various schemes and programmes without maintaining protocol. Reddy said, “As a sincere worker of the Congress, I will obey my high command, but I am also mounting pressure to keep the state united.”
He threatened to lodge a complaint with the Assembly Speaker about the MLA’s violation of protocol. The Kurnool MP has been targeting Venkatesh following rumours of him shifting to TD and planning to contest from Kurnool Lok Sabha seat. In that case, the two will contest against each other. rivals in the upcoming polls.
Reacting to the allegations, Venkatesh made it clear that he had never criticized the Congress. Taking a dig at Kotla Jayasuryaprakash Reddy, he said that Reddy had the record of setting the District Congress Committee office at Kurnool on fire after the party high command had denied him a ticket.
Referring to the rumours about him shifting to the TD, Venkatesh said, “I will leave the Congress if the state is divided.”
The Kurnool MLA also said that the MP was afraid of losing in the coming general elections and was thus making allegations against others.
Venkatesh was taking part in the inauguration of the awareness programme on lift irrigation for farmers at T.G. Bhavan in Kurnool accompanied by Law Minister Earsu Prathap Reddy.
