HYDERABAD: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president B Mahesh Kumar Goud on Thursday sought to douse the raging controversy ignited by Endowments Minister Konda Surekha’s comments on the Samantha-Naga Chaitanya divorce by appealing to both the film fraternity and Congress politicians to put the matter to rest.
Mahesh’s appeal came after a deluge of tweets and statements from various quarters, especially from the film fraternity, extending support to the Akkineni family and criticising the minister.
In a video message, Mahesh pointed out that the minister had retracted her comments and said that the time has come to put the matter to rest.
He said that Surekha’s comments on personalities from the film industry were purely unintentional and have been retracted. “The minister, apart from retracting her comments in front of the media, also tweeted her retraction on X (formerly Twitter),” the TPCC chief said.
Mahesh said that Surekha’s intention was to question Rama Rao’s attitude of belittling women and not to hurt the sentiments of anyone from the film industry. He asked the film fraternity to recognise the fact that there are women on both sides.
The TPCC chief stated that some people connected to Rama Rao and the BRS had trolled Surekha viciously on social media over what was a “sister accepting a garland from a younger brother” at Medak during a recent meeting.
“The intense trolling left the minister very hurt. She has unconditionally retracted her comments on Samantha. Also, I request Congress leaders and ministers to be very careful in their choice of words,” the TPCC chief said.