CHANGE OF GUARD: Congress corporator Mallika Begum having a word with acting Mayor Ch. Krishna Kumar after the postponement of special meeting of the general body of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation on Tuesday. — Photo: Raju V.

VIJAYAWADA : The last-minute change made in the decision of the Congress to enthrone Mallika Begum to the coveted Mayor post, leaving Ratna Bindu aside, has left Vijayawada East MLA Vangaveeti Radhakrishna and his Kankipadu counterpart Devineni Rajasekhar (Nehru) miffed. They wondered how the decision to nominate Ms. Bindu, which was already announced, could be changed now.

Though the discontent has so far been limited to a few rumblings, it is likely to develop into serious differences in the party.

Taken aback

The MP's argument that nominating Ms. Begum to the Mayor's post would help the party in bagging the crucial minority vote in Karimnagar bye-election did not cut much ice with the two MLAs.

For, both geographically and politically the places are far removed from each other.

They were taken aback by Mr. Rajagopal's other argument that he was "not able to answer his conscience," which was questioning him since the decline of party ticket to Jaleel Khan in 2004 Assembly elections.

More than all this, what seemed to worry the MLAs is whether Mr. Rajagopal would manage to get Ms. Begum continued for the next four years, in contravention of the agreement to give the last two years of the tenure to Ms. Bindu.

They feel the party may find it difficult, when elections would be just a couple of years away, to explain why a minority candidate will have to be replaced with someone else.

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