Realising that dissidence and rebels would hamper its chances, Telangana Congress went into a firefighting mode to pacify them and ask them to withdraw from the race, with AICC leader K.C. Venugopal himself speaking to some of them assuring them a good political future.
The most heartburn case was that of Patel Ramesh Reddy, an aspirant from Suryapet constituency, who was denied a ticket in favour of former Minister Ramreddy Damodar Reddy. The AICC secretary Rohit Chaudhary and TPCC senior vice-president Mallu Ravi went to his residence to convince him. They were welcomed by the slogan-raising supporters of Mr. Reddy while the family members questioned them on the ‘injustice’ done to him. The leaders made Mr. Reddy speak to AICC General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal, who apparently assured him that he would be given the Nalgonda Parliament ticket in 2024.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Ramesh Reddy said he felt humiliated as he had sacrificed his seat in the 2018 elections too. “The party assured me that I would be given Nalgonda Parliament ticket. So I have decided to withdraw from the race and work for the Congress candidate,” he said.
The AICC in-charge for Telangana Manikrao Thakare also reached out personally to several disgruntled leaders who filed nominations as Independents. He spoke to several rebel candidates, assuring them of alternative positions in the government as soon as Congress came to power in a few days. Some of those with whom he spoke included A Sanjiv Reddy (Adilabad), Dandem Ramreddy (Ibrahimpatnam), Janga Raghava Reddy (Warangal West), Gangaram (Jukkal), Kasula Balaraju (Banswada), Umesh Rao (Sircilla) and Nehru Naik (Dornakal) among others.
The party is facing problems with dissidents in about 30 seats as the leaders are angry that new entrants into the party were preferred over them. However, party leaders convinced them that the ticket distribution was based on survey reports and there was no intervention from their opponents in the party.
