Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday exhorted party leaders in Telangana to air their views within the party fora and warned of action against those who level allegations and counter-allegations openly. Claiming that there is anti-incumbency in Telangana, he emphasised on the need for unity among party leaders to defeat the ruling BRS and BJP.
Singh has held parleys with Congress leaders in Telangana since Wednesday evening to resolve the crisis in the party's state unit in the wake of some senior leaders complaining that those who recently joined the party got prominence at the cost of "original leaders and activists."
"It is natural to have ambitions in politics and every individual has ambitions. But, party's discipline is supreme. With folded hands, I pray to all Congressmen, especially senior leaders, that whatever they want to speak, they do it inside the party and to the party leadership," he told reporters.
Stressing that there is no need to make allegations and counter-allegations, he said the Congress leadership has decided that there should be no recurrence of issues like the recent one. "If it happened, action will be taken however big the leader is," he warned.
He said he has spoken to party leaders and that there could be many complaints. He assured that steps would be taken to resolve the issue. The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister had earlier served as AICC in-charge of party affairs in undivided Andhra Pradesh. Singh claimed that the BJP is making attempts to stop the Congress party's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' as it was wary of the overwhelming support the foot march was receiving.
"If COVID is the danger, then the policy should be equal to all. BJP's meetings go on. BJP's rallies, 'padayatra' go on in Rajasthan. But, the (Union) Health Minister is giving suggestions to stop the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Congress. Naturally, it is clear that BJP and RSS are worried," he said.
After the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' concludes, the Congress has decided to take up the 'Hath se Hath Jodo' campaign to every home. Singh expressed happiness that Congress in Telangana has started the process of drawing up the framework for the proposed campaign. Observing that Telangana could not have come into being without Congress support and that TRS (now BRS) had only two Lok Sabha members before state formation in 2014, he alleged that Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao ran a campaign against Congress after formation of the state.
Digvijay said that the BRS supports the bills brought in by the Centre in Parliament but, outside, it pretends to be fighting the BJP. Singh also accused AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi of fielding candidates in seats, where his party does not exist, and this is only to make the BJP win. He sought to know why Owaisi has remained silent on Rao's 2014 promise of providing 12 per cent quota to Muslims.
