Desertions leave Congress in jittery

Hyderabad: Desertions, which are on the increase, have put the Congress party leadership in the state on the tenterhooks. More of the young MLAs and promising leaders wielding considerable influence on the cadres at the grassroots have been giving enough indications about their shifting loyalties.

The party has no-immediate game plan to contain the drift. What worries the party is the fact that more of the desertions are bound for the YSRCP.

The need of the hour is special measures for assuaging the ruffled feelings of the disgruntled elements who have fallen out with the leadership for one reason or the other, observers feel.

But whose task is it any way? The defection of Maddala Rajesh Kumar, congress MLA from Chintalapudi in West Godavari came in as an eye opener for the party.

But the party leadership is in no mood to take the blame for his decision on the plea that he remained always away from the activities of Gandhi Bhavan.

More such desertions may be in the offing. The PCC Chief Botcha Satyanarayana also admitted this while assuring himself that the party would not be affected with such developments.

But the YSRCP has been targeting the Congress leaders and functionaries with credentials acceptable for all sections of voters. Congress is facing the problem equally in Telangana districts.

The YSRCP has cast its spell on the forces that had been part of the support base of the Congress. It is more so in Nalgonda, Karimnagr and Adilabad districts where some of the diehard loyalists of the late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy are waiting in their wings for the right moment to announce their resignations to join the YSRCP.

So is the case with Khammam district where the YSRCP has made its presence felt attracting cadres even from the left.

Jalagam Venkat Rao, former Congress MLA and son of former Chief Minister J Vengal Rao, has already joined the YSRCP. The party is expected to take advantage of the district wide reach of the family.

Venkat Rao was expelled from the Congress for getting into fray as a rebel in Khammam Assembly constituency. It had a bearing on the poll outcome in Khammam Lok Sabha seat in 2009.

Congress legislators Alla Nani( Eluru)and Ravu Venkata Sujay Krishna Ranga Rao (Bobbili) had already submitted their resignations to the Congress party.

Senior Congress MPs such as Kavuri Sabasiva Rao and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao are fuming against the Congress leadership for their non-inclusion in the central cabinet.

Kavuri is yet to decide on the resignation he had submitted after the expansion of the central cabinet. Many of the fence sitters in the party are waiting for their final decision.

Some of the first time MLAs in the party have pinned hopes on the nominated posts and expansion of the state cabinet, if any, in future.

Those who fail to get opportunities for such posts are expected to go the way of Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy's party which is going all out to eat into the vitals of both the Congress and the TDP.