Cong puts ZPTC, MPTC ticket-seekers on ‘loyalty test’

State Congress, which suffered humiliation after large-scale defections, before the assembly as well after the December polls, apparently has decided not to take any more risk over their party colleague’s loyalty to the party.

This was in the wake of serious threat looming large on state leadership as defected 13 MLAs of the 19 won in the December polls, set to merge the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) to further humiliate the state party leadership.  It was a clever move by the 13 MLAs, who chose to cross over to the TRS to avoid any future legal action against them.  As majority members in the CLP chose to join TRS, no legal hurdles can stop them.  Meanwhile, reports of another three may join the bandwagon are also in circulation, though the CLP chief Bhatti Vikramarka and PCC Chief N Uttarm Kumar Reddy, claim otherwise.

Taking a cue from the bad experiences, the state Congress chief would not like to risk of same thing happening even in local bodies after polls.  As a precautionary measure, the PCC Chief had asked all those who are seeking tickets to contest ZPTC and MPTC polls to sign an Rs 20 Bond papers that they will not desert the party after polls.

PCC Chief had also held a meeting with his senior party colleagues before taking the decision.  The meeting was attended by the CLP leader Vikramarka, senior party functionaries and former ministers K Jana Reddy and Shabbir Ali and others.  At the meeting it was also decided to decentralize the process on selecting candidates and issuing B Forms.

Uttam Kumar Reddy had issued A Forms to all districts Congress Committee (DCC) Presidents which authorize them to issue B Forms to candidates.

Meanwhile, Legislators R Kantha Rao, Chilumarthy Lingaiah and Haripriya Naik, who reportedly visited the TRS office on Sunday to collect B Forms to nominate candidates for the upcoming ZPTC and MPTC polls, said the defectors would merge the group with TRS within four days.