Hyderabad: After a dismal performance in the Assembly elections held in Telangana, Congress party has realised that it lacks charismatic leaders and crowd pullers to match TRS supremo K Chandrashekhar Rao. So naturally, the grand old party is relying on Priyanka Gandhi to save its face in the country’s youngest state. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi led the Mahakutami and addressed several public meetings in the state, but couldn’t save the party from humiliating defeat. Now, speculation is rife over that Congress is mulling over replacing incumbent in-charge of Congress affairs in Telangana RC Kuntia with Priyanka Gandhi.
No doubt, Priyanka Gandhi is a crowd puller and may make public meetings a success, but the billion dollar question is whether that can be translated into votes for the Congress party, quirks a senior political analyst.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) sources said that Rahul Gandhi is not happy with the performance of RC Kuntia as he couldn’t revive the party’s fortunes in Telangana.
“In fact, Congress had failed twice to cash in the advantage of being creator of Telangana statehood under UPA’s second term. Entire TPCC right from the top brass to lower cadres should be re-engineered to strengthen the party from the gross-root levels. Rahul Gandhi is also keen on this need of overhaul,” said a senior Congress leader.
TPCC is keen on convincing party high command to ensure the participation of Priyanka Gandhi in at least three major public meetings in Telangnaa.
V Hanumantha Rao, AICC secretary and an aspirant of party ticket for Khammam Lok Sabha constituency, said that “Priyanka Gandhi will definitely impact the Telangana voters as the sentiment will be different for Lok sabha elections. Moreover, Rahul Gandhi is the Prime Ministerial candidate. this will be another positive factor for Telanganites, who have special place for late Indira Gandhi, who won from Medak Lok Sabha constituency in 1980.”
In 2014 elections, TRS won 12 Lok Sabha seats and Congress bagged just two seats, while BJP, AIMIM and TDP ended up with one seat each. Now, KCR wants to bag 16 seats out of 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana, leaving Hyderabad seat to his friendly party AIMIM. Before Assembly elections, TRS had successfully reached out to all the beneficiaries, estimated to be over one crore, of more than 400 welfare schemes to seek votes.
