While some were unhappy over the treatment meted out to their castes, others were complaining along regional lines. Where one Congress MP from Andhra region directly held Azad responsible for the state of affairs in the party, another MP from Telangana region warned that the Congress will be wiped out if Telangana was not formed.
Azad attended the coordination committee meeting at a time when the tenuous relations between Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and State Congress president Botsa Satyanarayana had become the subject of discussion among party leaders.
Even as Azad was busy meeting the Congress leaders on the second day of his visit to Hyderabad, Member of Lok Sabha from Amalapuram, Harsha Kumar took strong objection to the inclusion of two representatives from Kapu community in the Cabinet, both from the erstwhile Praja Rajyam party. “Where was the necessity for giving so much importance to the Praja Rajyam party”, he wondered.
Harsha Kumar, a Dalit leader, hails from Konaseema region where scheduled castes and the Kapus have bitter rivalry and cannot stand each other. Harsha Kumar also questioned the wisdom and the rationale behind not taking any Scheduled Caste representative in place of minister P Shankar Rao, who was sacked from the Cabinet.
He said Azad was responsible for this situation in which the Dalits were feeling neglected by the Congress party. He said that the castes which had played an important role in bringing the Congress party to power in the State were being ignored by the party.
“There is no coordination among the coordination committee members of the party”, he said adding that Azad and other leaders of the party had failed to carry every body along.
Congress leaders belonging to another powerful caste -- Kamma - -were also up in arms against the importance given to the Kapus. Congress MP from Guntur, Raypati Sambasiva Rao, who is a Kamma, said that his community was unhappy with the humiliation meted out to them in the Congress and warned that the Congress will lose the by-elections in Kamma-dominated constituencies.
Azad himself had expressed his unhappiness over the rivalries and differences among party leaders in the coordination committee meeting and asked all leaders to remain united and work for the victory of the party in the Assembly elections that are due shortly.
To prevent the repeat of the earlier coordination committee meeting, Azad imposed a restriction on the members of the committee talking to the media and asked only the PCC president to brief the Press. However, his direction could not stop other leaders of the party from venting their dissatisfaction.
A group of Telangana MLAs of the party, including G Venkatramanna Reddy, met Azad on Sunday and demanded a clear assurance that the party will grant statehood to Telangana. Azad told them that he will submit a report to the party president Sonia Gandhi after the elections to the five States were over. The MLAs told Azad that they don’t want any package for Telangana but only a Telangana State.
Another party MP from Telangana, Vivekanand expressed disquiet over the delay in decision on Telangana and warned that Cong will be wiped out if it does not deliver.
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