The Congress MPs from Telangana are striking while the iron’s hot. The party high command, who, afraid of facing dissent had planned a meeting with the MPs on the FDI-in-retail issue on Tuesday, received a major snub when eight of them, including Union minister S Jaipal Reddy, did not turn up.
The meeting held by Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath saw the Telangana MPs play the pressure card as Ponnam Prabhakar, Manda Jagannadham, Madhu Yashki Goud, Siricilla Rajaiah, G Vivek, Gutta Sukhender Reddy and Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy ignored the invitation.
Rajya Sabha member Palvai Govardhan Reddy and Union minister for science and technology Jaipal Reddy too did not attend the meeting. However, close aides of both the leaders said they had prior engagements.
However, Union ministers of state Sarve Satyanarayana and P Balram Naik attended the meeting as did V Hanumatha Rao, Suresh Shetkar, Anjan Kumar Yadav and MA Khan.
Interestingly, three of the eight MPs who kept away, met K Chandrasekhar Rao who has already decided to vote against the FDI in retail, setting off speculation that they might find a new home in the TRS. Manda Jagannadham, Vivek and Rajaiah held lengthy discussions with Rao on Tuesday night at Vivek’s residence.
The rest of the rebel MPs, meanwhile, met at the residence of Jaipal Reddy at the same time.