HYDERABAD: Several Congress leaders, particularly from the Hyderabad region, seem to be convinced that there is no future for them in the grand old party and are jumping ship one after another. Since the last four years, after the 2018 Assembly elections, a number of leaders who contested on Congress tickets have switched their loyalties to either the ruling TRS or the BJP, the other Opposition party that is trying to make inroads in the State.
The latest among the list of city-based Congress leaders who are ready to jump ship is Marri Shashidhar Reddy, a four-time MLA. His colleagues in the Congress are finding it impossible to believe that a leader like Shashidhar Reddy, the son of former CM Marri Chenna Reddy, could leave the party. The possible reason could be dwindling trust among voters in Congress, which was quite evident in the last election.
While the party’s aggregate average vote share was 28.4% in the 2018 elections, it was a mere 19% in the city. The Assembly constituencies in the city where the party fared well are Secunderabad (26% vote share), Cantonment (24%), Khairatabad (24%), Musheerabad (25%), Jubilee Hills (34%), Nampally (35%), and Qutubullapur (39.05%).
Of these constituencies, Congress contestants Kasani Jnaneshwar (Secunderabad) joined TDP, Sarve Satyanarayana announced he would be joining the BJP during the GHMC elections, Mohd Feroz Khan (Nampally) dropped hints multiple times that he would be donning saffron, Dasoju Sravan (Khairatabad) joined the BJP and then the TRS and Kuna Srisailam Goud joined the saffron party. If sources are to be believed, other leaders are also carefully weighing their options and watching the political developments.
When asked whether the city-based Congress leaders were not confident about their future in the party, former MP and Hyderabad district Congress president Anjan Kumar Yadav said, “They are opportunists leaving the party when the party is in a critical position.
The party will be unaffected by their defections. Congress is like a milch animal, now they are abandoning it as the milk dried up, but the cycle will repeat where it will assume its past glory.”