Cong. faction feud over ZP posts ends

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI, JULY 27. The tug of war between the two groups of the Chittoor Congress(I) MLAs over who should be the party candidate for the Chittoor ZP's Vice-Chairperson's post having ended last night bringing down the curtains on the week-long stand-off between the two groups on the issue, the stage is now set for tomorrow's election to the ZP's Chairperson and the Vice- Chairperson's posts.

It may be recalled that the elections which should have taken place on July 23 had to be postponed to tomorrow as all the 33 elected ZPTC members en bloc stayed out and refused to enter the meeting hall without their respective MLAs being present on the occasion.

The MLAs, vertically divided on the choice of the candidate for the vice-chief's post played truants and went out of the reach and contact of everyone including the election authority, the District Collector forcing him eventually to cancel the meeting for want of quorum and putting it off to tomorrow.

The end to the fracas did not come until the two top most functionaries of the State Cong.(I) unit - the PCC chief, Mr. M. Sathyanarayana Rao and the Congress Legislature Party leader, Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy themselves - landed at Tirupati on Thursday and had protracted negotiations, individually and group- wise, with the warring factions.

Announcing the end of the stalemate at a news conference here today before his departure to Hyderabad at the end of his two-day fire-fighting mission, Mr. Sathyanarayana Rao said that the candidate for the controversial vice-chief's post was selected on the basis of the ``majority opinion.''

As the DCC(I) president and the Piler MLA enjoyed the support of the majority MLAs (six out of nine) and majority ZPTC members, Mr. Rao said that they prevailed upon the 3-member rival group to accept the principle and withdraw their demand for the allotment of the post to their group.

It may be recalled that while Mr. Ramachandra Reddy staked the claim for both the Chairperson and the Vice- Chairperson's posts playing hard the ``majority support'' card, rather successfully, the splinter group insisted that its candidate should be installed on the seat.

The controversy eventually led to such a serious tug of war that at one stage it looked that the Chittoor ZP seat also might meet the fate as the Warangal ZP if the rift was not closed at once.

It was this inherent danger that made both the two top heavy weights - PCC chief and CLP leader - rush in here and sort out the differences.

Mr. Rao claimed that the splinter group was made to see the reality and agree finally to concede both the two slots to the DCC(I) president. He said as a quid pro quo, both the posts of the cooption members were given to the dissident group.

This apart, Mr. Rao said that as the PCC president, he could always consider their ``rehabilitation'' in the PCC itself as office-bearers. As per the peace formula worked out, the party's candidate for the ZP's Vice-Chairperson is Mr. Peddi Reddy, the DCC president's cousin for whose candidature he had to labour hard, of course successfully.

The party's candidate for the Chairperson is Ms. M. Reddamma and in fact there was no controversy over the incumbent for Chairperson's post because, the seat was reserved for BC (woman) and this was the reason why the race for the deputy chairperson's post has become so tough, as anywhere else in the state in the present and the previous elections as well, with the two predominant communities which rule the roost in the AP political field vying with each other for the same so that they could do the back-seat driving keeping the Chairperson, a reserved category candidate, a mere ornamental head.

Though the dissident group was made to fall in line and support the party's official candidates for the two top slots, the majority group is visibly still skeptical about the outcome. We cannot say anything until the elections are over, a senior leader told reporters.

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Section  : Southern States
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