HYDERABAD: Telangana Congress leaders are finding it difficult to get Sunil Kanugolu, chief advisor to Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress strategist, to Hyderabad to present them a plan of action to face the Assembly elections in December this year.
Kanugolu is reportedly very busy in Karnataka in his role as the chief advisor and is not able to spare time for Telangana leaders. The Telangana Congress leaders are badly in need of consulting him on the roadmap that they should follow to face the elections.
A few senior leaders who participated in Satyagraha Deeksha on Wednesday discussed the need for consulting Kanugolu on the strategy they should adopt to win the election here as he had helped the Congress in Karnataka in defeating the BJP. At the Assembly constituency level, the aspirants for tickets spoke to the seniors about when they would get advice from Kanugolu in facing the sitting MLAs of the BRS as the elections are not very far away.
The party leaders are unhappy that Kanugolu is not sparing any time for Telangana and his team is not doing any work in the constituencies. A former MP said that the majority of the leaders have had no interaction with Kanugolu as yet.
A former Minister and senior leader of the party felt that Sunil and his team are discussing Telangana elections with TPCC Chief A Revanth Reddy and that they had no interaction with him. They said that they have no input from Kanugolu’s team in facing the elections or learning about their drawbacks.
No interaction with Telangana leaders
On more than one occasion, Revanth Reddy had said that a survey by Kanugolu’s team is vital in finalising tickets for the Assembly elections. But, after the Karnataka elections, Sunil had become very busy and could not interact with Telangana leaders.
Revanth Reddy’s camp, however, said that Kanugolu’s team was active in social media and was getting the necessary feedback from the Assembly segments, community and caste-wise. The camp says that Kanugolu was spending time in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the other States where Assembly elections are due at the end of this year.
According to Revanth Reddy’s confidants, after his meeting with Rahul Gandhi at Warangal and then another meeting with him later on, there were no instances of Kanugolu taking any interest in Telangana affairs.
The leaders requested the party’s high command and State leadership guide the party leaders at the field level on how they should carry out their campaign in their constituencies and how to prepare the cadre. The senior leaders have requested the party to assign Kanugolu’s team to conduct surveys so that the party could finalise the tickets for the aspirants. They recall Rahul Gandhi saying in the past that the names of the contesting candidates would be released three months ahead of Assembly elections.
When will we get inputs, ask ticket aspirants
At the Assembly constituency level, the ticket aspirants are enquiring with the senior Congress leaders as to when they would get advice from Sunil Kanugolu in facing the sitting MLAs of the BRS as the elections are not very far away.
The leaders are unhappy that Sunil is not sparing any time for Telangana and his team is not doing any work in the constituencies. They said that they have no inputs from Sunil Kanugolu’s team in facing the elections or learning about their drawbacks. A former MP said that the majority of the leaders have had no interaction with Sunil Kanugolu as yet.