The Congress Party in the state wants to conduct a survey before it can take a decision for by-polls. A mini general election is inevitable if the ruling party decides to go ahead with disqualification of 16 Congress legislators and one PRP MLA who voted in favour of Jagan.
Though a majority leaders in the ruling party are angry with the erring MLAs and want them to be expelled from the party immediately, the party leadership is still unsure of its chances at the hustings. That is why there is still no clarity on the move over disqualification, despite Jagan’s open challenge to Congress Party.
With 7 seats already vacant and another 17 staring in the face, the Kiran Kumar Reddy government does not have the confidence of making it in the by-polls. While PCC Botsa Satyanarayana seems to be eager to plunge headlong into by-polls and prove his mettle as PCC Chief, CM Kiran is said to be in two minds.
A majority of Congress Ministers believe that unless they respond appropriately to the challenge posed by Jagan, the party will not be able to expose the ‘nexus’ between YSR Congress and TRS as well as the ‘pretensions’ of opposition of TDP.
“The time has come to take on Jagan camp in a face-off. He is still riding on Kadapa victory, which cannot be repeated in the next by-polls,” a Congress leader said.
It is in this backdrop that Congress wants to go for a pre-poll survey by a reputed agency before testing the waters on the ground. It will be interesting to see what the Congress-sponsored survey will reveal about their ‘winning chances’!
Some of the Ministers reportedly alleged that Congress Telangana MLAs were offered rs 5 crore to Rs 2 crore by Jagan camp to either vote against the government or at least raise the issue of Telangana during the debate on the motion in the Assembly.
