Even as its rival parties are gearing up for the general elections due in 2014 by undertaking padayatras and mass-contact programmes, the Congress is still unable to rectify organisational lapses and prevent internal squabbles among party seniors.
It is no secret that the infighting among the Congress seniors is continuing unabated. Be it chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, deputy chief minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana or Union minister K Chiranjeevi, every top leader in the state Congress is maintaining their own group in the party in their struggle for one-upmanship.
The letter purportedly written by Union minister V Kishore Chandra Deo to the Congress high command against the chief minister and the PCC chief, and the retaliatory attack by the camps of Kiran Reddy and Botcha lend credence to this argument.
The widening rift between Union minister S Jaipal Reddy and chief minister Kiran Reddy also proves that fissures among Congress seniors are becoming wider with each passing day.
In several districts, ministers and party MPs are crossing swords for one-upmanship.
A classic example of this is the continuing rift between minister DK Aruna and Nagarkurnool MP Manda Jagannadham in Mahbubnagar district. The same is the case with Guntur district where minister Kanna Lakshminarayana and Guntur MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao are at daggers drawn. In Visakhapatnam district, Union minister D Purandheswari, Rajya Sabha member T Subbarami Reddy and minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao are at loggerheads.
Similarly, in Ananthapur district minister N Raghuveera Reddy and former minister JC Diwakar Reddy do not to see eye to eye.