A new president and some hope for Telangana Congress

Fears of being consumed by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is slowly gaining steam in Telangana, prompted the Congress to focus on consolidating its cadre base and becoming relevant once again. Have motivated for.

The formation of Telangana was a very emotional issue. The Congress thought that it would benefit from the birth of a new state. But since 2014, the party has only been dwindling in strength. Its poor performance has been mainly due to infighting between senior leaders who had projected themselves as chief ministerial candidates. Also, the defection of legislators in the ruling party after the 2014 and 2018 elections badly damaged the organizational strength of the Congress.

Now, has emerged as a hope for many loyal party workers New President, A Revanth ReddyHe is the sitting MP of Congress from Malkajgiri. After the 2018 elections, the party steadily lost its base to Dalits and Muslims. In an effort to win them back, Sri Reddy organized the ‘Dalit-Girijana Dandora’ to “expose” Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s unsaid election promises made to Dalits and Girijans. Sri Rao’s Pratinidhi Sabha was held inside the forests of Adilabad and in the heart of Gajwel constituency. He was successful and signaled to the workers that the party cares about its support base and is ready to take on the powerful.

But this enthusiasm was largely dampened by the outcome of the Huzurabad by-election, where Congress’s bail was forfeited. The contest was seen as a fight between Eatala Rajender, who broke away from the TRS party leadership and joined the BJP, and Gelu Srinivas Yadav of the TRS. Congress leaders argued that Huzurabad had not been a Congress seat for decades, but the result still hurt the party. Revival hopes also faced an obstacle in the form of the BJP winning the Dubak and Huzurabad bypolls. “The defeat of the Congress has exposed the party’s crumbling organizational structure,” said a senior leader.

While the new Pradesh Congress Committee team has revived the practice of holding weekly meetings and events, these are only small steps. Unless the party presents a new narrative instead of criticizing Mr. Rao’s policies and his alleged corruption, it will fail to attract voters. The social engineering plan of the Congress assumes significance in view of the rising political aspirations among the Backward Classes (BC)-communities, which the BJP is diligently wooing while keeping the Reddy community happy. The Congress must ensure that leaders emerge from small and under-represented BC communities that have gained strength over the years, and not just from the Munnuru Kapu community.

There is also the problem of differences among senior leaders. However, when former minister and Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, a strong critic of Sri Reddy, shared the stage with the PCC president for the first time at the Vaari Diksha (paddy protest), it gave hope to the cadres that senior leaders would share their differences. were trying to suppress.

Sri Reddy is charismatic and dynamic but these traits will not revive the party’s fortunes and help dethrone a strongman like Sri Rao. Since Sri Reddy is also considered inaccessible, he must first change about himself before trying to change the party. Sri Reddy called Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, whose organizational skills are well known. At the same time, he also has to instil the belief that the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy energized the party. Everyone hopes to win elections but few people have the will to prepare for elections and take tough decisions. The Congress cadre hopes that Mr Reddy has that will.

ravikant.ramasayam@thehindu.co.in