AP Congress Faces Dearth of Contestants For Bypolls

Like never before, the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh is facing dearth of contestants for the upcoming bypolls for 18 assembly seats in the state. The PCC chief has listed out 14 probabale candidates and 8 of them have backed out citing various reasons. This has never happened in Congress history, not even at the time of 1994 debacle, in which the party had won a meagre 26 assembly seats.

PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana had prepared a list of 14 names as candidates for the bypolls last week. However, Congress sources said many of them were mere probables who are now conveying to the state party bosses that they would prefer not to contest. "Publicly, the leaders are saying that they are backing out because they do not have the Rs 6-7 crore needed for bypoll expenditure. However, the reality is that the candidates think they don't stand a chance as the YSR candidates are very strong," said party sources.

The main reason for the paucity of candidates for the Congress is said to be former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's policy of grooming his protege as the sole leader in each assembly segment. As a result, with the sitting Congress legislators jumping into the Jagan bandwagon, the Congress now has no leader of stature left in the 18 constituencies. A desperate Congress high command is now sending AICC leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Vayalar Ravi to Hyderabad this weekend to persuade Congress leaders to take on YSR Congress in the bypolls being dubbed as mini-assembly elections.

Modi Is Not Our PM: Owaisi

MIM is a recognized state political party based in the Indian state of Telangana, with its head office in the old city of Hyderabad, which has its roots in the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen founded in 1927. Unlike most of the regional and national level parties, MIM party leaders ‘fight’ only for the well-being of Muslims, whereas no other party has such communal feelings. In their each and every speech, MIM leaders speak only about Muslims. If these leaders are here to fight for Muslims, then why there are no development works are happening in old city area for decades. Akbaruddin Owaisi faced criticism for making hate remarks on Narendra Modi and Hindus. Recently, his elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi made some notorious annotations. In a one-on-one debate between BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi on the topic of demonetization in a popular Hindi channel, the former left no stone unturned in exposing the latter’s communal designs. Owaisi claimed how most of the Muslim community still remains unbanked and that demonetization has caused severe inconvenience to Muslims. He even went on to say that ATM’s in Muslim-dominated areas weren’t fed enough money. He indirectly alleged that the Modi government hadn’t done anything for Muslims. Even after being pressurized Owaisi didn’t call Narendra Modi as his Prime Minister. He went on said, “Your Prime Minister…” On the other hand, Sambit spoke wisely and called Owaisi a leader of small stature because he talked only of Muslims. He said that no area was Muslim or Hindu and that all areas belonged to India. Owaisi was constantly quoting an RBI report, to which Sambit challenged him to show where the RBI had used the word ‘Muslim’. Sambit even said that if a Muslim leader speaks of Muslims it’s not an issue, but the moment a VHP leader speaks of Hindus people go crazy accusing them of imposing the Hindutva ideology. The most amazing of his counters was to Owaisi’s claims of Muslims not having been brought into the banking system. Sambit said that when banks or ATMs are to be opened in Muslim areas leaders like Owaisi shout that banking is un-Islamic and that Muslims should refrain from it! This video of debate between Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi is going viral in social media.