The Congress party in Andhra Pradesh might be in a jubilant mood with the re-entry of former and last chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh state Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy, hoping that he would turn around the fortunes of the party in 2019 elections.
But the party high command seems to have forgotten the fact that Kiran’s re-entry into the party in Andhra Pradesh would have adverse effects on the party’s prospects in Telangana, where it has bright chances of coming to power, according to analysts.
They say people of Telangana are still aware that Kiran was an out and out anti-Telangana leader in the Congress party.
The fact that he had ruthlessly tried to suppress the movement for separate Telangana is still fresh in the minds of the people.
The brutality of the police on the Telangana activists during the Million March programme on Tank Bund, attacks on students in Osmania University, his attempts to crush the Sakala Janula Samme (All People’s Strike) and his witch-hunting of employees participating the strike are still unhealed wounds in Telangana.
And when then Congress president Sonia Gandhi decided to grant separate statehood to Telangana, it was Kiran who opposed it strongly, campaigned against Congress Working Committee resolution, got the draft AP Reorganisation Bill rejected in the assembly and finally resigned from the party in protest against Telangana formation.
So, if such a person is taken back into the Congress, it will definitely put the Telangana Congress leaders in an embarrassing situation.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi will definitely question the double standards of the Congress, saying it is regretting formation of Telangana, which is evident from the re-admission of hard core anti-Telangana leader into the party.
There is definitely some logic in this argument. It remains to be seen how the Telangana Congress leaders will tackle the situation.
