No truce yet between warring Cong. factions

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI, JULY 25. With no rapprochement in sight between the two warring factions of the Chittoor Cong.(I) MLAs over the candidate for the vice- chairperson of the Chittoor ZP, the APCC(I) president, Mr.M. Satyanarayana Rao, and the leader of the Cong.(I) Legislature Party, Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, are expected here tomorrow for talks with the two factions.

The visit of the two Cong.(I) heavyweights to the district comes in the wake of the failure of Cong.(I) veteran and former Badvel MLA Dr. Sivaramakrishna Rao's mission to the district yesterday at the instance of the party to bring about a truce among the nine-member Cong.(I) group, which is vertically divided in 6:3 ratio on the choice of the party candidate. While the six-member group, led by the DCC president and Piler MLA, Mr. Ramachandra Reddy, has thrown the hat for both top slots in the ZP, the rival group, terming the move as `avaricious,' is demanding the deputy chief's post for it.

The DCC president defends his claim for both slots on the ground that he merited it for all his efforts in the success of the Cong.(I) in the just concluded `toughest ever' local body elections where the party scraped through by a mere one vote margin by securing 33 votes against the TDP's 32 in a 65-member House. He has first managed to get his own candidate approved for the chairperson's post and is now keen on installing his own brother's son, Mr. Peddireddy, on the ZP deputy's seat. He is said to be arguing that while the candidate selected for the chairperson is the choice of a majority of ZPTC members and MLAs, the candidate for the deputy's post is his personal choice as DCC president.

But his rival group, comprising the Tamballapalle, Chittoor and Vayalpadu MLAs - Mr. K. Prabhakar Reddy, Mr. C. K. Jayachandra Reddy and Mr. N. Kirankumar Reddy - are opposing his demand tooth and nail in as much as it is too unreasonable. The Cong-I camp in the district is in such a sad position that though it has secured as many as 33 seats against a mere one it secured in the last ZP, it is pushing an otherwise easy election into a deep quagmire due to internal bickerings raising hopes of the TDP walking away with the Chittoor seat.

It is precisely to prevent another `Warangal' at Chittoor that the two top leaders of the State party are themselves landing here tomorrow to bring about a compromise among the feuding MLAs and prevent the TDP from fishing in troubled waters and thus hijack the ZP post.

Meanwhile, senior party leader, Mr.G. Muddukrishnama Naidu, at a press conference wanted that the Chief Minister, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, who always shouted from house tops about clean politics, to stop his partymen from indulging in horse-trading in chairperson's election.

The District Minister, Dr. N. Sivaprasad, who was in- charge of the just concluded elections, has drawn flak from the former Satyavedu TDP MLA, Mr. M. Suraj, for being responsible for the TDP's poor show in the district in the ZPTC and MPTC elections. He alleged that the minister `sabotaged' the TDP chances as he was a `Congressman' having headed the Chittoor District YSR Yuva Sena before he entered the TDP.

At Chittoor Congress leaders, led by the former MP, Mr. Gnanender Reddy, criticised the ZP's Chief Executive Officer for showing undue haste in seeking an explanation from the Cong. Penumuru ZPTC member to prove that he had only two children and not three as being alleged by TDP leaders with `mala fide intentions.'

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