Describing the Congress in the state as a ‘sinking ship’, suspended Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Ambati Rambabu on Thursday said that the party was deteriorating with each passing due to mismanagement of its affairs.
Talking to media persons at his residence, Mr Rambabu also charged the party High Command with neglecting it despite the largest chunk of the Congress MPs to Parliament from Andhra Pradesh. He said that this neglect was amply evident from the presence of only one Union Minister in the Cabinet.
Incidentally, only S Jaipal Reddy is a Union Minister, while the others who represent Andhra Pradesh are Ministers of State.
Reacting on the raw deal meted out to the state in the Union Cabinet reshuffle, Mr Rambabu claimed that some of the Congress MPs themselves told him that the Congress in the state was a sinking ship.
The staunch YS Jaganmohan Reddy supporter pointed out that the Ministerial aspirants pointed out that despite the state contributing 33 Members to the Lok Sabha in the 2009 elections and playing a key role in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) retaining power, it was not given adequate representation in Cabinet.
He said the Congress party was able to retain power in the state only due to the efforts of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
Mr Rambabu further stated that by the overlooking of Congress MPs for Union Minister’s posts, the self-respect of Telugu people has been hurt once again. He added that a major injustice has been done to Andhra Pradesh by the Congress High Command by not giving chance for Telugu people in the Cabinet expansion.
The suspended PCC general secretary cautioned that the people of the state would give a fitting lesson to the Congress in the next general elections scheduled for 2014.
Referring to speculations which had arisen by repeated requests from some quarters, Mr Rambabu rubbished the rumours that former Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy might rejoin Congress by 2014 elections. He termed these as baseless and far from truth.
The suspended Congress leader said that, on the contrary, Congress leaders from the state would join Mr Jaganmohan Reddy’s yet to be launched party work for strengthening it.
He said that Jagan was moving with people with a commitment to implement his father YSR’s programmes and schemes and there was no hidden agenda behind his resolve.