Congress high command is undecided whether to take action against Venkat Reddy immediately or after the Munugode bypoll.
Congress leader Komatireddy Venkata Reddy. (Supplied)
At a time the Congress was hoping to draw strength from Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, which entered Telangana on Sunday, 23 October, Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy’s not-so-covert support to his brother and BJP candidate Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy in the Munugode bypoll has come as a dampener to the party’s rank and file.
After the leaked audio in which the Congress MP was heard asking a party leader to vote for Rajagopal Reddy, comes a video in which he is seen telling his friends on arrival in Melbourne, Australia, that the party’s chances were bleak in Munugode.
Venkat Reddy is holidaying in Australia, after announcing that he would not campaign for the party in the Munugode bypoll, which was necessitated when his brother, the sitting MLA, resigned from the Congress and the Telangana Assembly.
The AICC has served a show cause notice on Venkat Reddy over the audio recording where is heard calling a Congress leader and asking him to support his brother regardless of the fact that the latter was contesting the election on the BJP ticket.
The road to Munugode, where a bypoll to the Assembly is scheduled for 3 November. (Raj Rayasam/South First)
Not only is the Congress leadership, which is now helmed by its new president Mallikharjun Kharge, furious over the way Venkat Reddy is conducting himself, but so are dyed-in-the-wool Congress leaders and cadres.
The party is unable to find even a little breathing space in the wake of the pincer attack on it by both TRS and BJP which have infinite resources to back up their campaigning.
The two parties are reaching out to each and every voter and trying to buy them out. In fact, Diwali in Munugode was never celebrated by voters on the scale that it was on Monday, with the support of the two main parties.
The Congress, pressed for funds, simply cannot match the two parties in resources.
In an open letter to the voters on Diwali, Telangana Congress chief A Revanth Reddy cautioned them against the “evil forces” that had ganged up with BJP and TRS to isolate the Congress.
“Those who have risen in public life due to the munificence of the Congress are now betraying the party,” he said, an obvious reference to Venkat Reddy and Rajagopal Reddy.
A banner put up by Election Commission in Munugode asking voters to not take money. (Sumit Jha/South First)
But as Revanth Reddy makes appeal after appeal to the voters, he is unwittingly revealing his desperation, unmindful of the kind of effect it would have on the morale of the party. Especially at a time when some party workers are contending that their campaign is finding some traction.
In his Diwali open letter, Revanth had said that the BJP and the TRS have ganged up to eliminate the Congress, which made the cadres wonder if they were really making progress in what Revanth was fearing.
“Those who are in power in the state are trying to decimate the Congress, unmindful of the fact they would not have been what they are now had Sonia Gandhi not created the separate Telangana state.
“The BJP is misusing institutions like Election Commission and CRPF while the TRS is using the police machinery to suffocate the Congress.”
That Venkat Reddy should work against the party’s interests has particularly riled local Congress leaders.
For instance, Mulugu Congress legislator Danasari Anasuya, who is also known as Sitakka, said: “Mother gives birth to children, but not their destiny. If one tries to hurt the Congress nominee’s prospects, one should be eased out of the party. Venkat Reddy has to give his explanation as the audio and video clips are out in the open.”
In fact, she pointed out, it was on Venkat Reddy’s suggestion that the ticket in Munugode was given to Palvai Sravanthi.
“So it was incumbent on him to be in the forefront of the campaign and ensure her victory in the polls,” she said, wondering how one can stay in the Congress and canvass for another party.
According to sources, the party’s high command is seized on the issue and is debating whether to announce a decision now or wait till the by-election is over.
What’s at stake in Munugode is simple. While it trumpets that it will emerge victorious in the bypoll, the BJP will be supremely satisfied if it comes in second after the TRS, the odds-on favourite to win the election.
Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy at his nomination rally in Munugode on Monday, 10 October, 2022. (Supplied)
If it manages to push the Congress, which won the seat with Rajagopal Reddy in the last Assembly election, to third place, the BJP will strengthen the narrative it is pushing that the state election next year will be a contest between the saffron party and the ruling TRS.
The BJP, most political analysts agree, makes noise and receives media coverage disproportionate to its actual strength on the ground in Telangana.
With Rajagopal Reddy on its side, the party, which polled just about 12,000 votes last time (compared to Rajagopal Reddy’s 93,000-plus and the 61,000-odd of the TRS) is hoping to emerge as a strong No. 2 in Munugode.
It remains to be seen how many Congress voters will follow Reddy into the saffron camp, and how many will shift loyalty to the TRS. And whether the Congress retains enough to at least emerge No. 2.
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