Hyderabad: The main Opposition party, the Congress has proved with its creditable performance in the MLC polls that as long as there is strong leadership coupled with financial clout, it can stand up to the TRS.
Two of the three contestants from the party won comfortably, giving the Congress confidence that as long as there is united effort, with a killer instinct it will remain a force to reckon with.
Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar are considered strong bases for the Congress, where it has five MLAs and an MP each. Nalgonda has provided strong leaders like Opposition Leader K. Jana Reddy and TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy besides Nalgonda MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy whose brother Rajagopal Reddy won the Nalgonda MLC seat by defeating Tera Chinnapa Reddy of the TRS by 193 votes.
Added to this, the party leadership in these two districts will not let the TRS snatch elected posts. Former minister D.K. Aruna meticulously planned and managed to get the second and third preference votes from the TD and BJP which helped party candidate K. Damodar Reddy trounce TRS candidate Jagdeeshwar Reddy.
Interestingly in these two districts, the Congress leaders had shown their strength even before the MLC polls. In the Nakrekal sarpanch election, the Congress took the help of other Opposition parties to ensure the defeat of the TRS nominee. In Mahbubnagar also, the party strategy worked in the Jadcherla sarpanch election. Both those polls were supervised by ministers.
But in Ranga Reddy district, the Congress had the numbers to win one of the two MLC seats but lost out to internal bickering. Local Congress leaders earned the wrath of the party high command when MLC nominees in three districts withdrew their nominations in favour of TRS. Besides this losing the deposit in Warangal Lok Sabha polls came as a shock to the party.
The party faces two big tasks immediately ahead — the GHMC elections as well as the Narayankhed Assembly bypoll. In the dissolved corporation, the Congress and MIM had held a majority of seats and shared the mayor’s post. The Narayankhed Assembly seat was won by the Congress in 2014. It is for the party leaders to either perform or perish.
