40 left-out Cong men form rebel front in Telangana

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, November 17

Failing to secure ticket for the December 7 Assembly elections in Telangana, at least 40 rebel candidates have formed a “rebel front” to contest as Independent candidates.

This is going to directly bite into the Congress vote bank and in turn, affect the Maha Kutami (grand alliance). The rebels, after giving an ultimatum to the party high command, now say that they would “fight it out”.

Led by former ministers Boda Janardhan (who aspired for the Chennur ticket) and Vijayarama Rao, who wanted the Station Ghanpur ticket of the Congress, the rebel leaders met at the house of Janardhan and have been working out their strategy. 

Janardhan told reporters that Maha Kutami (grand alliance) was handing out tickets to those who had defected from other parties and ignoring its own cadres. 

The alliance formed by the Congress is between it and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and CPI. “Our demand is simple. We want justice. Now, we have decided to form our own front and around 40 of our rebels will contest independently. If the Congress loses, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Uttam Kumar must take responsibility. He is the one who has meted out injustice and gave ticket to weak candidates,” he said.

Meanwhile, Congress today released its third list of 13 candidates. This takes the total number of Congress candidates to 88 for a 119-seat House.