Internal bickering among Congress leaders comes to fore in EG

Rajamahendravaram: As there are more aspirants for various Assembly constituencies, differences among Congress leaders have come to fore in East Godavari district.

The Congress has announced candidates for six Assembly constituencies in East Godavari district so far. One constituency is kept pending.

Former PCC president Gidugu Rudra Raju is contesting as a candidate from the Rajahmundry Lok Sabha constituency. However, some leaders are expressing dissatisfaction regarding the selection of candidates for Anaparthi and Rajanagaram constituencies.

There are two SC reserved constituencies in the district out of which the candidate has been announced for Kovvur. However, the candidate for Gopalapuram has not been finalised yet. Senior leader Mulla Madhava Rao, who is serving as the general secretary of APCC, has applied for this seat.

But retired IAS officer Koppula Raju is also aspiring to contest from Gopalapuram. With this, it seems that there has been a deadlock in the selection of the candidate for this constituency.

It is learnt that at a key meeting held with the mandal conveners and chief leaders of the seven Assembly constituencies within the district, in the presence of AICC State observer Manoj Chauhan and MP candidate Gidugu Rudra Raju, the leaders of Kovvur constituency J Ravikumar, Bhaskar, Matta Subbarao, Kodamanchili Chandrasekhar, and others demanded the change of Kovvur candidate.

They said that it is not appropriate to give seats to those who are not available to the workers and those who come only for elections. It was asked to give the opportunity to party flag bearers. Raja Reddy of Anaparthi constituency and Suryakumari of Rajanagaram constituency expressed their displeasure over not giving them seats. However, MP candidate Gidugu Rudra Raju pacified them. Everyone should work hard for the party's victory and it is the need of the hour, he said.

Rudra Raju said that the true heirs of former Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy are the Congressmen and Jagan Mohan Reddy is only the heir of his properties.

He said that the ideology of YSRCP is close to that of BJP. He criticised Jagan Mohan Reddy for not reacting to the riots that took place in Manipur.

He cautioned people that reservations will be removed if the BJP comes to power again at the Centre. Contesting Congress candidates unveiled the poster of party’s nine guarantees.

PCC working presidents Sunkara Padmasri, Janga Gowtham, Assembly candidates Boda Venkat, Balepalli Muralidhar, Dr Yella Srinivasa Rao, M Venkata Srinivas, Arigela Aruna Kumari, Pedireddy Subbarao, PCC State secretary Mulla Madhav, Akula Surya Bhagyalakshmi and others participated.