Hyderabad: Deep-seated factionalism between the Congress old guard and turncoats in Telangana has exploded into public view again after a war of words between veteran Congress leader and state Health Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha and Jukkal MLA Laxmikantha Rao.
The fight reportedly began earlier this week at New Delhi’s Shangri-La hotel over “sand mining interests” and organisational appointments, and continued to echo in Hyderabad, the state’s capital, in the days after.
According to party sources, Laxmikantha Rao has claimed that Rajanarasimha hurled vulgar abuses at him and threatened to lock him up in a room and “beat him to death”. The latter, meanwhile, is said to be furious that an MLA from a neighbouring district is“interfering” with his turf. The “interference” refers to what Rajanarasimha sees as the unilateral selection of P. Chandra Shekar Reddy as the Sangareddy District Congress Committee (DCC) president, allegedly without any consultation with him or Congress working president Jagga Reddy.
The battle soon escalated into an open rebellion, with Rajanarasimha alleging that the Congress was being run by “incoming operators”. “The party is being run by ‘kabza (captured) Congress’ leaders today. We, the original Congress leaders of the party, are the real owners. We will soon show our strength in public,” Rajanarasimha is understood to have told Rao in New Delhi, party sources told ThePrint.
Amid the fight, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief B. Mahesh Kumar Goud stepped in to call a peace meeting and requested both Rajanarasimha and the Jukkal MLA to report at the Gandhi Bhavan. However, the minister skipped the meeting, saying he was informed at the last minute, defying the party president and forcing an embarrassing last-minute postponement.
The matter has officially been escalated to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) high command in New Delhi, with senior central leaders now being forced to step in to review the conduct of both factions and restore basic party discipline before the administrative rift becomes completely irreparable.
2023 spillover
The health minister is considered a veteran statesman in state politics, with over three decades in the party, having earlier served as the deputy chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh. Rao, meanwhile, is a first-time MLA who commands local influence but lacks the backing of the party seniors. He joined the party after the 2023 assembly elections.
During the campaign for the election, the Congress high command aggressively imported leaders from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to secure a legislative majority. Rajanarasimha’s remarks about “kabza Congress” refer to the heavy influx of leaders from other parties who have rapidly cornered cabinet influence and administrative leverage. About 10 elected representatives from the BRS joined the Congress after the elections, and many new entrants were given tickets by Revanth Reddy, who was then the TPCC president.
The widening rift has reached Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s door, with his senior cabinet colleague also alleging that his ministry’s bills were not being cleared.
“Only those bills that are presented by brokers promising a commission are cleared by the chief minister’s office. This is not how the original Congress works. We are in touch with the party high command about several issues and will soon bring out a report,” the minister told his close associates in the Secretariat. The Delhi altercation and the subsequent remarks made by the minister in the Secretariat are not isolated incidents. A wave of public complaints from other legislators such as Jadecherla MLA Anirudh Reddy and Munugode MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy also suggests widespread dissatisfaction with the current administration’s functioning
Both Anirudh Reddy and Rajagopal Reddy have alleged that their constituencies are being ignored and that senior ministers are not sanctioning funds for local development.
The opposition parties in Telangana have cornered the Congress, calling the fallout a symptom of the failure of the mandate of governance.
BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao said, “Congress leaders travel to Delhi saying that they are going to seek approval for various projects. However, it is clearly visible from the Delhi ‘lobby fight’ that cabinet ministers and MLAs are busy fighting over sand-mining profits and district posts. The administrative machinery has completely stalled, leaving crucial pre-election promises unfulfilled,” KTR told the media at Telangana Bhavan, the BRS headquarters, in Hyderabad.
With Telangana expected to face a string of political tests before 2028, infighting among various groups in the party presents a major challenge for the Congress.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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