Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy felicitating the PJ Kurien Committee that is visiting Telangana to assess the Congress party’s performance
The PJ Kurien Committee constituted by the AICC to assess the ‘poor’ performance of the Congress in Telangana saw the sitting MPs and contested candidates solidly supporting Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, revealing figures that Congress has secured the highest number of seats in Telangana for the first time after 1956.
The MPs and the defeated candidates said the Congress party improved its vote share in Parliament by securing over 40% votes, higher than the Assembly elections, and claimed that the percentage in the previous Parliament elections over the last two decades hovered between 30 to 35% only.
BRS allied with BJP
The party could not bag the expected 13 seats as the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and fielded weak candidates with the sole agenda of ensuring BJP’s win to weaken the Congress. “Or else the party would have won 13 seats easily,” Chamala Kiran Reddy, Bhongir MP said. “We won 64 seats in the Assembly and led in 66 Assembly seats in the Parliament elections,” he argued.
Some members actually raised concerns over the committee’s visit stating that it sent wrong signals to people. “When we performed much better compared to 2019 and 2023 elections why should we brand the exercise as poor performance,” they asked the committee members.
Nagarkurnool MP, Mallu Ravi suggested that the effort to weaken the BRS further should continue and for this, the second rung leaders should be attracted to the Congress as many are willing to join. However, he cautioned that at least 50% of the seats in the local bodies and party posts should be reserved for old-timers while the new entrants can be given opportunities depending on their strength.
‘CM should visit Gandhi Bhavan’
There were suggestions that the Chief Minister should visit Gandhi Bhavan at least once in two weeks, even after the appointment of a new PCC chief so that there is better coordination between the party and the government. Ministers should be mandated to visit the party office in Hyderabad and also in the districts on a regular basis.
They suggested that party should keep on harping on the developmental schemes every day and also politically attack the BJP constantly so that the issues are not out of people’s mind.
The committee met the MPs on Thursday. Pargat Singh will join on Friday when the committee will meet the MLAs and contested MLA candidates.
