Crucial hour for Congress leaders nearing

Whether the Congress Leaders, who are notorious for putting the proverbial spanners in their colleagues' works over the decades, spare Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in his hour of need when the no trust motion is thrust on him sooner or later remains to be seen.

They are presumed to be loyal to the core, though they have had the audacity and habit of leg-pulling and sowing dissensions to be in the forefront always.

The crucial hour seems to be round the corner even as the Congress top brass entertains second thoughts for direct action on those who deserted the party and joined Kadapa leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy.

They presumably are keeping their fingers crossed at the moment and even while taking steps to prevent the flight of another batch of MLAs, which is not completely ruled out at the nick of the moment.

The slender majority on the Floor of the House might as well prove fatal in case the rebel leader indulges in brisk horse-trading. For obvious reasons they cannot confine themselves operating from the ivory towers.

Therefore the best option that is open to the Congress captains is to go for suspensions on 21 MLAs who sided with Mr Jaganmohan Reddy. This is expected to put a pause to the immediate exodus from the Kiran Kumar Reddy camp to Mr Jaganmohan Reddy’s camp.

Sooner it is done the better for the people. Any scope of a possible rapprochement between the two warring groups (Mr Jaganmohan Reddy and the Congress) diminished with the conduct of 'Deeksha' just behind the AICC headquarters on 24, Akbar Road.

Much less the Congress captains could still think of operating from the ivory towers given the magnitude of the situation.

The suspension exercise on 21 detractors is still kept on hold.

Signals are that no party save for a couple of men favour mid-term polls lest they should antagonise the voter turnout who may turn inimical with the kind of unproductive expenditure imposed.

The suspension stick is still spared in the fond hope that Mr Jaganmohan Reddy cannot wield his defiance and move the Assembly 'vote' as his party registration has been set aside by the Central Election Commission as the application carried some technical errors which will delay for two or more months.

This is precisely seen as a time buying pretext for the Congress which would like to utilise it for settling issues like the much delayed Cabinet expansion both at the Centre and State to placate

those trying to transgress.

This period also seems to entail the party for blocking any mounting pressures on the Telangana issue which is the immediate burning issue that is likely to cost the Congress very dearly in future.

Meanwhile, the much delayed Cabinet expansion at the Centre and state could be materialised to suit their policies in no nonsense under trying circumstances.

So the Jagan's party registration postponed serves as a breather to sort out and attend to any emergency issues as also to set right its house in order for some semblance.

If the Congressmen are branded as all-time time-servers (opportunists) , their party bosses have no parallels in trouble shooting.  Their belief is that the 'ultimate' bullet, Central Rule, is their last shot to call, come what may.

By no means are these party bosses inferior compared to what they were right from the times of Ms Indira Gandhi. They had the upper hand on the party leaders at that time, they do continue to retain the upper hand now.

This makes it, at times, difficult to gauge them or elicit what is up their sleeves.