Srikakulam: The triangle fight among Congress official candidate Tankala Babji, TDP candidate Chintu Sudhakar and Congress rebel candidate and AICC member Gorle Haribabi Naidu in the Local Authorities Constituency is getting curiouser by the day. The District Congress Committee at a meeting where Minister for Revenue Dharmana Prasada Rao was present urged Mr. Haribabu Naidu to withdraw from the contest and openly declare support for the official candidate. If he failed to withdraw, action— meaning suspension— would follow. In response Mr. Haribabu Naidu asserted that he had the blessings of the party high command, including party president Sonia Gandhi, and he continued as a Congress candidate. Till today there was no action against him.

The Congress seems to be in a dilemma, the assertion of Mr. Prasada Rao's promised action notwithstanding. If Mr. Haribabu Naidu is suspended, the sympathy factor might damage the prospects of the official candidate. Mr. Haribabu Naidu has been banking on the sympathy factor.

Dharmana blamed

He was defeated twice in the Assembly elections and lost the ZP chairmanship race at the last moment.

Mr. Naidu blames it on the Revenue Minister. Because of these, he has a groundswell of sympathy among party workers. Besides, caste equation is in his favour.

On the contrary, if there was no action, the claim of Mr. Haribabu Naidu that he has the blessings of party command would be vindicated and the Congress voters would be in a dilemma.

The total number of votes for the LAC is 795. The Congress has 495 and the TDP 285, the remaining seats were shared by others like the CPI(M) and the CPI. The numbers are clearly in favour of the Congress. But there was a feeling among a section of the TDP that it should extend support to the rebel candidate, the objective being to embarrass the Revenue Minister.

There is another section in the TDP which feels hat a vertical division in the Congress, which is likely in the present scenario, would help the party's nominee to romp home. That would be a greater embarrassment to the Revenue Minister.

Will the TDP support the rebel? Will its banking on the vertical division help its candidate reach the winning post? These are the questions the answers of which are anybody's guess.

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