It was a meeting aimed at paying tributes to those killed in the Uttarakhand tragedy. But, like any other Congress meeting, there were fireworks among leaders prior to this meeting.
PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana, though he did not take part in the meeting of the executive body of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Monday, flew off the handle at government chief whip Gandra Venkataramana Reddy and whip Dronamraju Srinivas for not informing him about the meeting. The PCC boss, who visited the CLP office prior to the CLP executive meet, expressed anger at Gandra and Dronamraju for not informing him about the executive meet as well as about paying tributes to the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy the day being the late chief minister’s birth anniversary. This once again brought to the fore the cold war between the camps of the chief minister and the PCC president.
When asked about Botcha’s annoyance, Gandra said, “There was some communication gap.” At the meeting some MLAs expressed their displeasure over power shortage and non-distribution of ration cards to the needy.
Chief minister Reddy assured them that he would look into the issues. He told them that he would undertake another phase of Rachabanda after elections to local bodies to distribute ration cards.Kiran put the onus of making the Congress-backed candidates win the panchayat elections on the shoulders of party MLAs.
The meeting decided, in tune with Sonia Gandhi’s directive, that party MLAs would donate one-month salary for the victims of Uttarakhand floods. The MLAs also donated Rs 24 lakh to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund at the meeting.