HYDERABAD: Politicians dream, but it’s the voters who decide whether those dreams are fulfilled or not. TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy started December 11 as a special day, hoping that his four-year-long dream of steering Telangana Congress to victory in Assembly polls would come true, effectively making him also the High Command’s pick for CM post.
But Uttam’s dream got shattered within hours after sunshine, as counting trends across Telangana pointed towards a Congress-led People’s Front rout.
Former fighter pilot-turned-politico was so confident of People’s Front victory and his coronation as CLP leader eventually making him the CM, that he had entrusted the job of collecting his Certificate of Election from the returning officer in his constituency Huzurnagar to his wife Padmavathi Reddy. He stayed in the Capital to monitor results and make arrangements for the CLP meeting in the evening. Backing of AICC president Rahul Gandhi made him confident of winning the top job.
But as soon the counting started, the writing on the wall was clear. While People’s Front candidates belonging to all parties trailed, TRS candidates zoomed ahead with margins increasing with each round. The candidates of Congress-led rainbow alliance failed so miserably that the results have created disbelief across all parties.
While TPCC chief expressed doubt over EVMs soon after the counting started, at 3 pm in the afternoon he convened a media conference and said, “Election Commission has colluded with TRS and conducted elections in a favourable way to ruling party. We have doubt on the EVMs.
We fear that EVMs have been tampered. We urge CEO and officials to count even VVPAT slips, but officials at the counting centres are not listening to us. The results are not in sync with the polling pattern we observed on the polling day. This is a black day for democracy,” said a dejected Uttam raising doubts over EVMs.
As the dream shatters, TPCC chief blames EVMs
Even as his party made big gains in other states, Uttam Kumar Reddy was not ready to accept the humiliating defeat as people’s mandate. Even as other Congress leaders like Jana Reddy and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, TTDP chief L Ramana took the defeat in a dignified manner, the TPCC president failed to take it in a sporting spirit.
While the outburst of TPCC chief failed to make any impact on the counting process, it only earned him further negative marks in a failed examination, probably bringing curtains down on flop show of Congress-led People’s Front in Telangana.