The forthcoming by-election to the Jubilee Hills assembly constituency, due to the recent death of its BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath is turning out to be an acid test to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s clout within the Congress Party. Already the party high-command, his ministerial colleagues and Congress MLAs are expressing discontent over his performance.
While selection of Congress candidate itself turned out to be a big challenge here, to ensure united efforts by all Congress leaders also seems to be difficult. Former MP Azharuddin, who was unsuccessful in the last election, has almost himself declared that he would be the candidate. Meanwhile, two ministers who are reportedly assigned the task of coordination in the constitution are receiving negative feedback from the party cadre.
They seem to be shocked to hear from their own leaders in the constituency that “BRS is strong in Jubilee Hills constituency. In this context, it is reported that Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, MLAs Danam Nagender, Jhansi, MP Anil Yadav, Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi, Congress leaders Azharuddin and Rohin Reddy held a secret meeting on Wednesday at the residence of Minister Vivek Venkataswamy.
It is learnt that several key workers from the constituency were called and they were given assurance that Minister Vivek Venkataswamy would fulfill all their ‘financial’ needs. The two ministers, Ponnam and Vivek assured them that “We are with you. From now on, the entire responsibility is ours. Ask us whatever you want.”
Congress President Mallikarjuna Kharge has set a target of 10,000 people from the Jubilee Hills constituency for the meeting to be held at the LB Stadium on the 4th of this month. However, Congress leaders have reportedly expressed their anger at Mayor Vijayalakshmi after she complained that when she goes on a tour of the divisions, none of the Congress leaders or workers come and do not cooperate with her.
At one stage, all the local leaders rebelled against her and said, ‘Who asked you to come to our divisions? Whichever party you are in, that party will be destroyed. If you come to the party the other day and dominate us, it will not work.’