Infighting Intensifies in Congress As Cabinet Expansion Delayed
Frustrated aspirants openly express discontent as the Telangana Congress delays Cabinet expansion, leading to infighting and pressure on party leadership.
Hyderabad: With the much-anticipated Cabinet expansion seeming to have been put on back burner again, aspirants are raising their voices in dissent, causing embarrassment to the state Congress leadership.
The delay has also led to infighting among party leaders coming out in the open, with allegations and counter-allegations over the chances of the aspirants being stymied by their rivals.
A day after Munugode MLA Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy said that veteran leader K. Jana Reddy was blocking his chances, it was the turn of Mancherial MLA K. Prem Sagar Rao on Sunday to accuse, though indirectly, the Gaddam family of spoiling his chances of becoming a minister.
Referring to the Girijana Dandora that he had organised in Indravelli in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly elections, Prem Sagar Rao said it was a turning point for the Congress. Unlike some leaders who hopped from one party to the other, he remained had loyal to the Congress and fought for the party in the last 10 years of BRS regime, he said.
“Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge had assured me that they would recognise my contributions once the party came to power. I believe that they will keep their promise,” Prem Sagar Rao said.
Though reports of the Cabinet expansion were doing the rounds for several months, they gained momentum during the Budget Session of the Assembly last month. The party high command summoned Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, his deputy Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and PCC president B. Mahesh Kumar Goud for discussions on the issue.
Party leaders had then indicated that four ministers would be inducted into the Cabinet, leaving two vacancies for future expansion. The PCC president even hinted that the Cabinet expansion would take place in the first week of April, to be precise on April 4. There were unconfirmed reports that K. Raj Gopal Reddy, G. Vivek, V. Srihari and A. Sudarshan Reddy would make it to the final list.
The expansion, however, has not taken place yet. In the meantime, veteran Congress leader Jana Reddy wrote to the AICC chief Kharge to accommodate a minister from Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts, while four MLAs belonging to the Madiga community and belonging to the Scheduled Tribes community too pitched for Cabinet berths for their respective communities. These demands, according to party leaders, could have led to the postponement of the exercise.
On the other hand, Gaddam Vivek, ruling party MLA from Chennur and a strong aspirant, expressed his dissatisfaction over the delay in expanding the Cabinet. Addressing a gathering after unveiling the statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar at Jaipur in Mancherial district, Vivek went to the extent of saying that he would have become a Union minister by now had he stayed back in the BJP. “We responded to the ghar wapsi call of Rahul Gandhi and joined the Congress,” he noted, voicing his disappointment.
