Revival of Congress in Rayalaseema a distant dream?
The Hindu
With Kiran Kumar Reddy resigning from the party, the Congress leaders in Rayalaseema are impelled to rethink sticking with the party
Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy’s exit from the Congress party led to no political flutter in his home turf of the combined Chittoor district. However, the move by the last Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh has certainly impelled the party’s senior cadres to rethink sticking with the party.
A sweeping observation among the Congress leaders in the Rayalaseema region is that the political eclipse of the party and the demoralizing of the cadres happened simultaneously immediately after the bifurcation of the State.
The turbulent political developments that took place later on, such as the TDP rule from 2014 to 2019 and the sweep of the YSR Congress Party in 2019, had a debilitating impact on the fortunes of the Congress party.
During this period, the ‘once in a bloom’ visits of Kiran Kumar Reddy to his home turf (now the Piler Assembly constituency of the Annamayya district) kept the staunch followers of his family entertaining in a vague hope that he would once again become active in the party and that they could get back their political say.
In this context, senior Congress cadres felt that the party’s high command retaking Kiran into the party after his new party post-bifurcation—Jai Samaikhyandra Party— faced the dust in the election battle in 2014 was tactless.
Though he continued in the Congress in the later years, Kiran’s stoic silence had only embarrassed the Congress cadres and his followers.
In the last decade, the ruling YSR Congress Party, led by Minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy, considered Kiran’s arch-rival, had turned the Chittoor and Annamayya districts into its strongholds. Interestingly, Kiran’s brother Kishore Kumar Reddy joining the Telugu Desam Party also posed a political dichotomy to their supporters in the region.
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