Ponnala draws flak in TPCC meet

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Ponnala Lakshmaiah faced strong criticism from his own party men who blamed him for the party's defeat in recent elections.

The differences among the TPCC leaders were quite clear and apparent. Except for five MLAs and one MLC, all prominent leaders skipped the TPCC Executive Committee meeting held at Gandhi Bhavan here on Thursday. Both the CLP leaders K Jana Reddy (Assembly) and D Srinivas (Council) did not attend the meeting. Similarly, TPCC Vice-President Mohammad Ali Shabbir could not participate in the meeting due to his Delhi tour. The leaders who attended the meeting include Uttam Kumar Reddy, G Chinna Reddy, Sampath, MS Prabhakar and others.

Several office bearers complained that they did not get the invite to attend the meeting. A few of them barged into the meeting venue and reportedly indulged in fist fighting with the Congress workers.

The TPCC barred the electronic media from doing the live coverage of the meeting. The Congress headquarters wore a tensed looked throughout the day.