HYDERABAD, 2 April 2004 — Congress party President Sonia Gandhi has rushed AICC observer Vyalar Ravi to Hyderabad to defuse the crisis gripping the party and placate the party rebels who quit in recent days in protest against the “partisan selection of candidates” and allotment of more seats to Telangana Rashtra Samithi under poll alliance for the ensuing state assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh.
Vyalar Ravi, who arrived in the city yesterday, immediately took up stock-taking of the situation. He held a meeting with AP Congress Committee President D. Srinivas and Congress Legislature Party leader Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and later interacted with the dissidents, including former union minister and convener of AICC Other Backward Classes (OBCs) Cell P. Shiv Shankar, party veteran and former four-time MP M. Baga Reddy and former ministers Kamatam Ram Reddy and K. Keshav Rao.
The dissident leaders told the AICC observer that they were forced to quit the party due to the “machinations” of certain leaders in the selection of party candidates as well as in the allotment of seats to TRS under the seat-sharing pact. They also pointed out that the party failed in giving due representation to the backward classes and other weaker sections in the allotment of party tickets.
