Congress leaving nothing to chance - TeluguPeople.com News

HYDERABAD: The Congress is straining its every nerve, as if it is playing a high-stake game, to win the one Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly seats for which byelections will be held on June 12.

To corroborate the view, the ruling party's central leadership, in an unprecedented manner for by-elections, has involved itself in the selection of candidates and finalisation of campaigning strategy, and is even directly overseeing the campaigning.

All this by a party that has been in power without interruption for eight years!

The state Congress leaders have created an impression that they are viewing the by-polls as a matter of prestige all state-level leaders are actively taking part in the high-decibel electioneering braving the hot summer.

And there can be no mistaking that all of them are giving the impression that the party high command is taking the by-elections as its fight with the fledgling Jagan's party.

After the last general election in 2009, the state has witnessed several byelections in all the three regions.

Though it attributed the party's defeat in Telangana to the regional sentiment, the Kadapa and Kovur byelection results scared the AICC leadership out of its wits and forced it to call the shots from Delhi.

This provided a handle to opposition parties in the state to criticise that the high command has not given a free hand to the state party leaders and that the latter are only following the Delhi diktat.

The state party is already riven with groupism and a bypoll victory will create more groups in Assembly constituencies all over the state.

If the party fails to put up a good electoral performance, its image will further go down and it will embolden the opposition parties to blame the Congress for the rise of Jagan in state politics.

BJP national secretary K Laxman ridicules the Congress for claiming even before a vote is cast that it expects to win three or four out of the 19 seats. It's nothing but degrading itself, the BJP leader remarks.

Former TRS MP B Vinod Kumar alleges Congress-YSRCP nexus, saying that the Prime Minster's Office is not allowing the CBI to investigate Jagan's case in a proper way. He is sure that the image of the Congress will get a big dent after the elections.

Analysing the future scenario on more or less similar lines, the Left parties also believe that the Congress, after the by-elections, will face several problems.

A Telangana Congress member of the Rajya Sabha says the AICC and the APCC are playing with AICC president Sonia Gandhi's image at a time when the party is facing a serious electoral setback in almost all parts of the country.

'Never in the history of the party have the names of by-election candidates been finalised in the presence of the AICC president,' he comments.

But YSRCP leaders say that all these developments are taking place as expected and people will give their verdict on the nefarious game being played by the 126-year-old party against the one-year-old.

'Whatever be the outcome of the by-elections, the ruling party's image will get dented. If the opposition parties can turn the situation to their advantage, they will stand a good chance in the 2014 general election,' is the common opinion of the leaders of major parties.