The Congress party in Telangana suffered yet another blow after senior leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy on Wednesday, August 17, lashed out at the Congress leadership for their style of functioning. He alleged that the approach of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief Revanth Reddy and party MP and AICC in-charge for Telangana, Manickam Tagore were causing more harm than good to the party. Shashidhar Reddy, former Union minister and son of former Andhra Chief Minister Marri Chenna Reddy, alleged that the TPCC was controlling the AICC and not the other way around, and that false reports were allegedly sent to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Shashidhar Reddy claimed the party's central leadership was being kept in the dark about what was happening in the state, and that state leaders’ voices were going unheard. The former Sanathnagar MLA recalled that when they met former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and informed him about the problems in the party, he had promised to set up a mechanism to address them but nothing has happened even after four months.
He added that though the party has a committee headed by Jana Reddy to induct leaders from other parties, “it was doing nothing”. He claimed that “unilateral inductions into the party with no coordination with the grass root level leaders is giving rise to groupism” in the party, which is harming its interests.
Shashidhar Reddy's attack on TPCC chief and AICC in-charge came close on the heels of resignation of MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy and AICC national spokesman Dasoju Sravan. Both the leaders announced joining the BJP after launching a bitter attack on the party leadership. Rajagopal Reddy has also resigned from his Munugode Assembly seat, necessitating the bye-election. Shashidhar Reddy slammed Manickam Tagore at a time when the latter was in Hyderabad to hold meetings with party leaders to discuss strategy for Munugode bye-election.
During his visit to Telangana in May, Rahul Gandhi warned the leaders against voicing their grievances publicly. "This is a family. The views may differ. We want to hear views of all but not in the media. It should be in closed doors, the way a family talks," he had said. "If there are grievances or complaints we have an internal system. You can openly say whatever you want to say but if anyone goes out and tells something to the media, he will be damaging the Congress party and we will not accept this," Rahul Gandhi said.