Dokka spits fire at CM

Hyderabad: The revolt against the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy seems to be growing by the day. While nine ministers held a meeting and virtually isolated Kiran, Minister for Rural Development Dokka Manikya Varaprasad on Wednesday took strong exception to the attitude of the Chief Minister and his open defiance of the party high command.

Interestingly, the fireworks from the Minister come on a day when PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana and Union Minister of State for Tourism K Chiranjeevi were meeting the party leaders in Delhi to convey the concerns of the Seemandhra people and also complain against the Chief Minister’s open criticism of the party high command.

The Minister said that he would soon come out with more details about the Chief Minister’s plan to float a new party and alleged that was perhaps the reason why he was trying to build his personal image at the cost of the Congress party. Addressing the media on Wednesday, Prasad said that Kiran’s style of functioning had been creating a flutter among Congress leaders, cadres and the rank and file was thrown into a state of confusion.

He said he was unable to understand the language of the Chief Minister on Congress Working Committee’s decision. He said that the Chief Minister of late got accustomed to showering of praises by a group of persons.

The adamant attitude of the Chief Minister and the language he has been using to lash at the party leadership has invited the wrath of the high command and hence they were ignoring him. Though Kiran is known to speak in a frank manner, his comments during the past few weeks had offended the party leadership. The Chief Minister, he said, was surrounded by (Bhajan mandali) who keep showering praises on him even without reason.

He said when the Chief Minister expected that his cabinet ministers should abide by the decision taken at the cabinet meeting what was wrong in the high command expecting the Chief Minister to follow the its decision, he said. The Minister said that Kiran had sent P Shankar Rao and D L Ravindra Reddy from cabinet only because they did not agree with his line of thinking on certain issues. If that was right then there would be nothing wrong in the high command deciding to rein in the Chief Minister.

He said if leaders start defying an institution like the party just because they did not agree with their decision, governments and parties would collapse. “So, even if the party’s decisions are a bitter pill leaders have no option but to swallow the pill,” the minister said.

He said the Chief Minister instead of listening to the views of his cabinet colleagues and taking them into confidence was relying more on surveys. Recalling the manner in which the TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu lost elections because he depended more on surveys.