Rahul wary of meeting Cong MPs from State

"Where is the need to meet party MPs from Andhra Pradesh?" questioned one senior leader. He said that Rahul Gandhi, who is meeting all the MPs to find out their problems, is aware that the MPs from the state have only one demand. Anita Saluja New Delhi: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, who has assumed the role of his mother by interacting with the Congress MPs, is in no hurry to meet the Andhra Pradesh Congress MPs. The Congress heir-apparent, these days, is meeting MPs from all States in order to sort out their problems and prepare the party for Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. While he met Maharashtra Congress MPs on Monday, he has already held confabulations with party MPs from Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Mizoram. He is slated to meet MPs from Odisha on Wednesday, but is reluctant to meet party MPs from Andhra Pradesh. Highly-placed sources stated that the Congress heir-apparent, who is committed to strengthening the party organization, would meet the MPs from Andhra Pradesh after the month-long recess during budget session. The first-half of the session concludes on March 22 and Parliament reassembles on April 22. The MPs can look forward to redressal of their grievances only during the later-half of the budget session, which is from April 22 to May 10. "Where is the need to meet party MPs from Andhra Pradesh?" questioned one senior leader. He said that Rahul Gandhi, who is meeting all the MPs to find out their problems, is aware that the MPs from the state have only one demand. While those from Telangana want a separate State, the others are objecting to it. The party leadership felt that by calling these MPs, they would further create a rift between them, which may lead to chaos and embarrassment for the Congress High Command. Since the core issue of Telangana has not been addressed so far, Rahul Gandhi wants to avoid the State party MPs. Interestingly, with the Congress representatives of Maharashtra, where Assembly polls are slated in October 2014, much later than the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi spent two hours on Monday. In the meeting, besides the MPs, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who hails from the same State, was also present. "He heard each MP patiently and promised to address his grievance," remarked Gurudas Kamath, Congress MP and former Union Minister. The focus in the meeting was generally on Congress-NCP relations, with the MPs discussing strategy on how to beat their coalition partner in the seats tally. The MPs were confident that NCP supremo Sharad Pawar will not topple Congress-NCP coalition government in the State. They also complained against the functioning of MPCC Chief Manik Rao Thakre. Similarly, during his interaction with Madhya Pradesh MPs, Rahul Gandhi was asked to counter the publicity blitzkrieg of BJP-ruled State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. The MPs wanted that the flagship programmes of the UPA government should similarly be publicized, lest the BJP should take credit for it, as it happened with the implementation of MNREGA. Rahul Gandhi also interacted with the Tamil Nadu MPs though the Assembly elections to the Sstate are due only in 2016. Here, the party MPs wanted him to constitute the TNCC Executive. They wanted the party to publicize the steps taken by the Indian government for setting up 15 hospitals, repairing 21 schools, building shelters costing Rs 1500 crore for 50,000 displaced families of Tamils in Sri Lanka besides addressing the problem of devolution of powers for the Sri Lankan Tamils. Earlier, during his separate session with the Chief Ministers and PCC Presidents, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and APCC President Botcha Satyanarayana had mainly focused on finding solution to the issue of Telangana. Knowing that it is the sole issue that disturbs MPs from all the regions of the State, Rahul Gandhi is wary of meeting the State MPs, for now.