VIJAYAWADA: Are Congress corporators superior to the party on the banner of which they were elected to the civic body?

This is the question doing rounds in the party circles. The city voters reposed tremendous confidence in the Congress-Left combine electing 46 out of 59 of its candidates to the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) general body.

Several partymen aspiring to contest the election made sacrifices and supported those chosen by the party high command.

Two Congressmen who contested as rebels and won the election have openly agreed to sail with the party as associate members until they are admitted into it officially.

The functionaries and activists feel that the newly elected corporators have forgotten the party even before the euphoria of the tremendous victory died down. They are worried that the corporators will undermine the confidence reposed in them by voters. They say the events that followed the victory confirm their worst fears.

CPI celebrations

The bickering between the different groups helped the ally, Communist Party of India (CPI), to claim the Mayor post for the first year.

The CPI celebrated its victory by felicitating their corporators and Mayor. State and national-level leaders of the party attended the function to give due importance to it.

The Congress party could not even match the performance of its ally because of intra-group bickering. The newly elected corporators called for a meeting in the VMC office keeping the party functionaries in the dark. The meeting convened purportedly to introduce the newcomers to VMC officers boomeranged when none of them attended it.

The study tour organised by some senior Congress corporators for the first-timers also evoked a cold response from a group of corporators.

Get-together planned

The city president, Pyla Sominaidu, however, says that he will not entertain such feelings in his party. A get-together will be arranged with the corporators as soon as Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal returns to the city. He said Deputy Mayor Cherukuri Krishna Kumar and party floor leader Kunuku Rajasekhar had been coordinating with him through out. There is at least one office-bearer who is not very happy with the way the party corporators are conducting themselves. Party whip Meesala Rajeswara Rao stayed away from the meeting with officers and the study tour and has registered his protest on these matters to the leaders concerned.

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