HYDERABAD: The APCC committee constituted to analyse the outcome of the recent mandal and Zilla Parishad elections held its first meeting here on Monday but apprehensions persist among Congress leaders about whether it will seriously apply itself to the task.

Senior leaders expect the committee, headed by former Union Minister P. Upendra, to probe the `ground realities' that resulted in the unexpected revival of the Telugu Desam Party compared to the results of the Municipal and cooperative elections though the ruling party did well as far as numbers are concerned.

Some of the issues it is grappling with are whether the free power issue has boomeranged, particularly in Telangana region where the TDP could grab Adilabad and Rangareddy Zilla Parishads doing a creditable job in Karimnagar, Warangal and Rangareddy districts.

Senior leaders, particularly from Telangana, are in favour of a proper study of the impact of free power supply to the farm sector in the absence of uninterrupted supply for at least nine hours.

The issue of ration cards is also said to have rocked the Congress as supply of essentials through the Public Distribution System (PDS) has become unsatisfactory. The APCC is yet to study the voting pattern in villages where Indiramma is being implemented despite banking on it heavily.

As for political reasons, it will focus on the diluted strength of the alliance with the CPI (M) parting ways and the impact of the strained relations with TRS.

Ebbing euphoria

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy recently declared that the party would target 51 per cent vote share in the next Assembly elections as it did in Guntur, Kadapa, Srikakulam, Chittoor, Kurnool and Prakasam districts in the mandal and ZP elections. It needs a more than honest introspection to find out the reasons for the ebbing of the euphoria created by the 2004 Assembly and subsequent two elections in the party, seniors admit.

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