When the wait for a cabinet call gets too long, they let off steam like a pressure cooker whistle, pushing that safety valve to the limit.
Published Apr 16, 2025 | 9:10 AM ⚊ Updated Apr 16, 2025 | 9:10 AM
Congress office bearers and workers resign in Dakshina Kannada
Synopsis: Telangana Congress MLAs who are hoping for a berth in the state Cabinet, are letting out their bottled-up emotions over the delay in their non-inclusion.
Telangana’s Congress MLAs are simmering like potatoes in a pressure cooker. They are yearning for a spot in the state cabinet, whose expansion has remained a will-o’-the-wisp. They are now flipping their lids.
For a few of them, the tipping point has arrived. They are letting out their bottled-up emotions over the delay in their non-inclusion in the cabinet. Experts say that they are in a political tango and are careful not to aim at the party high command. If they do, it would be like committing hara-kiri.
Instead, they throw shade at their colleagues, asking us to decode their drama. Restraint while raging? It is the secret sauce of a seasoned politician. They explode just enough to make a scene, but never so much that they ruin their broth at the big table.
Congress is always a bubbling potpourri of grumbling voices. These folks meet daily at Gandhi Bhavan, smiling like they’re auditioning for “Best Bosom Buddies.” Behind the grins, they’re gnashing their teeth harder than a goat devouring sugarcane.
They are miffed at whoever they think unfairly nabbed the high command’s favour, but they would not show it. When the wait for a cabinet call gets too long, they let off steam like a pressure cooker whistle, pushing that safety valve to the limit.
Take K Rajagopal Reddy, K Premsagar Rao, and Malreddy Rangareddy. They are like three peas in the same pod of cabinet denial. Rajagopal’s been waiting so long he feels like a one-year-old avakaya (Mango pickle) that had been left to pickle.
However, he didn’t dare diss the high command. Instead, he took potshots at senior leader K Jana Reddy from his own Nalgonda district, same caste and all.
If Irfan and Yusuf can serve India,” he muses, “why not me and my brother Venkatareddy in the cabinet?” A simile that sounds fine. He is loyal to the party brass, but his aim is subtle. The darts, meant for the unseen one, appear to have hit the intended target.
Then there’s Premsagar Rao, the Mancherial MLA who is stuck in a claustrophobic limbo of frustration. He has been with Congress through its thick and thin and thinks it is payback time since the party, after all, is on a gravy train.
This Velama leader from the old Adilabad district was surprised that he had so much pent-up steam when he grabbed the mic at BR Ambedkar’s birth anniversary and let out his anti-newcomers rant. His target: another MLA, Gaddam Vivek Venkataswamy, from the same district.
Vivek had waltzed back to Congress just before the elections, snagged the party’s ticket, and won Chennur. Premsagar is convinced that Vivek has become a stumbling block for him to reach the cabinet berth. Even as his mentor, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, was looking on, he let out his frustration.
And don’t sleep on Malreddy Rangareddy, the Ibrahimpatnam MLA from Rangareddy district. He has also been moving mountains under the impression that if he is not eligible for a cabinet berth, nobody is.
He even roped in Jana Reddy from neighbouring Nalgonda to pitch for him to the high command, who said: “Give Rangareddy or Hyderabad a seat in the cabinet!” With no Congress reps from Hyderabad in the Assembly, Malreddy’s arguing he’s the guy to rep Rangareddy since the two districts hold half of Telangana’s population. Talk about playing the population card like a pro.
Meanwhile, the party high command is sitting on this cabinet expansion plan like a brooding hen refusing to hatch her eggs. The MLAs? They’re cracking under the pressure, each one becoming a ticking time bomb of ambition and angst.
For ordinary mortals like us, it is a political soap opera. Full of spice, steam, and shots of chaos thrown in now and then. Get ready, folks, Hyderabad’s kitchen is cooking a real riot.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
