The decision of the Congress high command to field Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy from Nalgonda in the parliament elections to be held on April 11 shows how weak the party is in Telangana.
Apparently, the Congress party could not find a stronger candidate to fight the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which has grabbed majority of the assembly segments in Nalgonda.
The party has only Uttam among the seven assembly segments under this parliamentary constituency. The only other Congress MLA – Chirumarthi Lingaiah from Nakrekal also joined the TRS recently.
Though the party thought of fielding defeated MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, he did not evince much interest in Nalgonda. Instead, he preferred to move to Bhongir, where the Congress has considerable strength.
Moreover, his brother Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy’s assembly constituency Munugode comes under Bhongir parliamentary constituency. Secondly, Bhongir was earlier represented by Rajagopal Reddy.
Uttam’s name was among the eight names announced by the high command on Monday night. In the first list released on Friday night, too, the party announced eight names.
However, Uttam is said to be not very much interested in contesting the Lok Sabha polls, because Nalgonda is not an easy seat to win and he has to pump in more money.
Secondly, if he loses the MP elections, it would bring down his image completely. Moreover, he is already an MLA from Huzurnagar.
“He told the high command that even if he wins the Nalgonda MP seat, the party cannot retain Huzurnagar assembly seat in the by-elections, as KCR is an expert in grabbing seats in the by-elections. He wants to continue in the state to save the party at a time when the MLAs are deserting it one after the other,” he told the high command.
But since there are no other takers, the high command insisted that Uttam should contest the MP elections. Even if he loses the polls, he has no problem, as he can continue as an MLA.