Split wide open in Seemandhra Cong

Hyderabad: The efforts of the Congress high command to rein in the Seemandhra leaders, who have been criticising the party leadership for its decision to bifurcate the State has led to acrimony between Seemandhra leaders and PCC president Botcha Satyanrayana.

Speaking to the media persons in Tirumala on Thursday, Minister for Infrastructure Ganta Srinivasa Rao said that the statement of the PCC president amounts to issuing a threat to the Seemandhra leaders, who have been sailing with the Chief Minister and supporting his stand on keeping the State united. He said if the PCC president issues show-cause notices to party leaders from the region, who is speaking in support of United Andhra, no one would be left in the party.

He said Botcha and the party high command should think as to why such a situation had arisen in the party. Even staunch loyalists have been criticising the party’s decision, he said. And on Wednesday, Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal had also criticised the PCC president saying that such threats could not force him to fall in line. However, reacting to the remarks of Srinivasa Rao and Rajagopal, another Minister Kondru Murali Mohan on Thursday said that all the Seemandhra leaders have to choose between loyalty to the party or their political interests. He said if they are loyal to the party, they should abide by the decision of the high command to carve out separate T State.

He said, since the division of the State was now inevitable, all these leaders who have been criticising the high command should work to protect the interests of the region.