Having denied tickets for the upcoming Assembly elections in Telangana state, as many as 40 Congress leaders have decided to form a Rebel front and contest independently. The Rebel leaders group will be lead by former Minister Boda Janardhan, who was denied the Chennur assembly ticket.
The present condition in the Congress party is mainly due to the improper adjustments in seat allocation, as part of the Mahakootami. The alliance which features Congress, TDP, Telangana Jana Samithi and CPI – will fight against their common opposition TRS in the general election. Janardhan says that justice has not been done in the seat allocation process with Congress TPCC Chief Uttam Kumar Reddy selecting candidates who lost consecutive elections in the past.
“This is pure betrayal from Congress and the state TPCC Chief. We have worked hard for the party and when it mattered, the Party has avoided us giving importance to those who defected into the party at the last moment”, Janardhan said. He further added that all those who were denied tickets by Congress will contest independently in the general election.
“We will contest independently. We have been asked by the Congress leaders to not form a rebel union but we are forced to do so for the welfare of the people of our constituency. Some of us may win and some may lose, we will discuss our future plan of action only after the election results”, Boda Janardhan said.
What does it mean to Congress?
When opposition forms such grand alliances it is very common to hear voices of dissatisfaction. The key in such a situation is how fast the party High Command persuades them without any scope for damage to the party. But, in this case, the State Congress seems to have lost its way with it still being busy with seat adjustments and persuading the rebel candidates.
The problem with Rebel candidates contesting independently is even if they do not win the election, there are high chances of the rebels securing an important chunk of votes thereby, influencing the constituency result as a whole. We will have to wait and see how the Congress High-Command manages the current situation.
The last date for filing nomination for the Telangana polls is November 19, 2018, and the elections for the same will be held on December 7 with the results scheduled to be announced on December 11.