Most of the senior leaders of the Congress skipped the day-long dharna held by Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao at the Indira Park on Saturday in protest against the proposed Land Acquisition Bill.
Except for TPCC President Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Leader of the Opposition K Jana Reddy, CLP leader in the Council D Srinivas and former MP Ponnam Prabhakar, no prominent leader participated in VHR's dharna protest.
Instead, the Congress party went on with its regular schedule, treating the dharna as part of VHR's personal agenda.
While VHR sat on the dharna, the TPCC chief and his deputy Mohammed Ali Shabbir conducted different programmes at the party's headquarters at Gandhi Bhavan.
They admitted Chintapandu Naveen Kumar, popular known as Teenmaar Mallanna, into the party. Later, Ponnala, Shabbir Ali and Ponnam addressed separate press conferences.
Meanwhile, speaking at the dharna camp, VHR condemned the central government's ordinance relating to amendments in the Land Acquisition Act which were proposed to take away the mandatory clause of consent of 80% of the affected land-owners.
He alleged that the law was aimed at benefiting the corporate sector and would hurt the farmers' interests. (INN)
filed in:Telangana Congress, V Hanumantha Rao, Land Acquisition Bill, Land Issues, Telangana