We lost due to disunity: Chiranjeevi

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For the first time, Congress MP Chiranjeevi was critical of the state of affairs in the Congress when he addressed a meeting of party workers at his residence on Friday.

They were there for the oath-taking ceremony of Thota Trimurthulu who won the Ramachandrapuram As-sembly seat in East Godavari in the recent by-election.

Analysing the debacle suffered by the Congress, Mr Chiranjeevi listed disunity and non-cooperation among Congress leaders, and not filling up nominated posts as reasons for the party’s failure.

The MP was pained at the loss of the Tirupati seat vacated by him, and said that it was lack of co-operation among certain Congress leaders that resulted in the defeat of the Congress candidate M. Venkataramana.

Mr Chiranjeevi said workers of both the Congress and the erstwhile Praja Rajyam that he used to head were thoroughly dissatisfied and feeling insecure about the way the state leadership had been ignoring them for the last few years.

He said the erstwhile Praja Rajyam leaders had cooperated with the Congress everywhere in the recent byelections and it was the disunity among Congress leaders that led to the poll debacle.

“There was absolute coordination in Narsapuram and Ramachandrapuram, and that was the reason the party won these two seats in the recently-held byelections. It lost in the remaining seats due to disunity and non-cooperation among Congress leaders. Mr Venkatara-mana himself told me this,” the Rajya Sabha member said.

Mr Chiranjeevi said he would be going to Delhi shortly to meet central party leaders to appraise them of the situation in the state.

“I cannot say the sympathy factor alone worked in favour of YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. There are other reasons also which need to be addressed, otherwise the party would have to face problems in the coming days,” Mr Chiranjeevi warned.