Member of Parliament from Virudhunagar and AICC in-charge for Telangana Manickam Tagore believes the party’s main rival in Telangana is the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and dismisses the BJP’s growth story as just hype. The proposed Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi will give a new impetus to the party’s fight against both the TRS and the BJP in Telangana, he said in an interview to The Hindu.
The differences among seniors seem to be hurting the party’s image at a time when it looked to be strongly growing?
Pradesh Congress Committee president is chosen by the Congress president and he represents her in the State. I want to compare the situation with the Cricket analogy. When Mahendra Singh Dhoni was made the captain of the Indian cricket team stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly played under him with the ultimate aim of winning. Similar is the Congress story here. There are bound to be differences of opinion but they all share the common goal of ousting TRS from power. We have anyway created certain mechanisms to create harmony among the leadership and seniors.
What plans do you have to cover the perceived gap between seniors and the PCC president?
There are weekly meetings and that has helped to plug the differences to a large extent as ideas are shared freely. The initial suspicion among the leaders is now reduced to a large extent. We believe when the leaders are engaged in the party work there is better cohesion and good results. The 41 lakh digital membership wouldn’t have been possible without seniors playing an active role. We are trying to encourage a work-based system rather than the discussion-based system. The success of Racha Banda was due to this and leaders connected with every village and all the farmers.
Seniors feel suffocated and gap is widening with reported intervention of Sunil Kanugolu’s team in party’s functioning.
This professional approach of pollsters’ feedback is a new process and there will be some misunderstandings. But leaders have to accept the change as it is better for the party and its future. The feedback from Sunil’s team is issue-based and not leader-based. Their inputs actually help the party in picking up issues at the local and the State level. Professional support matters in present day politics and we have to accept the change.
How significant is Raj Gopal Reddy’s exit from Congress since he is trying to create a perception that next elections will be between the TRS and the BJP?
All the non-performing assets (NPAs) in the Congress are getting transferred to the BJP. Raj Gopal Reddy has business interests. Did Prime Minister Narendra Modi promise a few hundreds of crores for Munugode that prompted him to join the BJP? People are not accepting the reasons put out by the MLA for his resignation and they believe it is a business deal that he got putting the constituency at stake.
Congress alleges that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself is promoting the BJP to undermine Congress given its growing base. How do you plan to tackle this alleged secret alliance?
We always believe that real people’s issues are always important. TRS has realised its popularity is sliding fast and wants to shift the real issues to the periphery and is playing with the BJP’s game of bringing up religious issues. But we will continue to expose the TRS party’s failures in the last eight years — like unemployment, farmers’ distress, land issues, corruption, nepotism and family rule — that destroyed the State. Our own surveys have shown that Telangana is a State where people can’t be fooled with religious narrative or KCR trying oppose Modi after supporting him all through.
The professional support from Sunil Kanugolu’s team has given us ample data to identify TRS failures, and people’s anger and nail the government. We advise KCR to stick to developmental issues if he wants Telangana to be safe rather than shifting his agenda to BJP’s religious issues.
Will Congress be open to alliance with KCR sometime since he is now vocal in his opposition to the BJP?
Let me make it very clear. Congress and the TRS are the main rivals and the BJP will not get even get double digits. In 34,600 booths in Telangana BJP doesn’t have the people to manage 20,000 booths. TRS may want to make a triangular fight but people won’t accept it. So alliance with the TRS is just wishful thinking of some people.
What will Rahul Gandhi focus on in the Telangana leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra?
He will walk in Telangana for 14 days and the intention is to reach out to people and drive away the fear they are living in now. The poor are the worst sufferers of the BJP rule. The middle class is under stress. Mr. Gandhi wants to promise an India that is for all. It will be a healing yatra. In Telangana, he will focus on unemployment, farmers’ distress, development issues and BJP’s communal agenda as well.
