‘Poor Performance’ in Gram Panchayat Polls: CM unhappy with 16 MLAs
Reviews setbacks with TPCC chief, AICC in-charge
Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Saturday expressed strong displeasure over the performance of 16 Congress MLAs in the recent Gram Panchayat elections, saying that their negligence caused irreparable damage to the party.
The Chief Minister, along with TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud and Telangana AICC in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan, held a teleconference to review the outcome of the sarpanch elections. The meeting was also attended by senior party leaders.
Revanth Reddy is also likely to hold a meeting with Cabinet colleagues on December 22 or 23. Besides analysing the Gram Panchayat results, the Chief Minister is likely to seek suggestions from them for formulating party strategy for the upcoming MPTC, ZPTC and Municipal elections.
During the review, the Chief Minister came down heavily on the MLAs and constituency in-charges for failing to control rebel candidates and failing to coordinate at the grassroots level. He found fault with some MLAs for fielding their relatives as party-backed candidates, leading to internal dissension and losses.
Expressing serious concern, the CM warned the MLAs to change their working style and strictly follow party discipline, failing which action would be initiated.
It is learnt that Meenakshi Natarajan pointed out that Opposition-backed candidates benefited due to the negligent attitude of the MLAs towards rebels resulting in rivals winning in places where the party had a fair chance.
The AICC in-charge reportedly said that poor coordination resulted in the defeat of party-backed candidates, particularly in the erstwhile districts of Warangal, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar, and cautioned the MLAs against repeating such lapses.
Later, the TPCC president said that he had personally spoken to the 16 MLAs over phone and conveyed the party leadership’s anger.
He made it clear that the defeats were the result of their irresponsible approach and informed them that the party leadership was unhappy with their performance. It may be recalled that the Congress secured a majority of sarpanch posts in the local body elections held on December 11, 14 and 17.
