Congress jumps in to defuse situation as Surekha-KTR battle turns ugly

As the film actors tagged Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in their posts questioning Telangana Minister Surekha’s outrageous comments, the party had to react quickly and strongly

Congress Minister Konda Surekha’s uncalled-for comments involving Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao and some film stars has led the Congress high command to intervene and defuse the issue that seems to have brought the entire film industry on one platform.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president B. Mahesh Kumar Goud spoke to the Minister conveyed the party leaders’ concerns, views and sentiments on the entire episode and convinced the Minister to issue an apology to film star Samantha.

Apparently, that was the party high command’s view as well, with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy too expressing the view that dragging Samantha’s name into the whole episode was unnecessary and diverted the core issue of abusive and indecent trolls against Ms. Surekha allegedly by the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) supporters.

Tagging Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi made the party react quickly

As the film actors also tagged Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in their posts questioning Ms. Surekha’s outrageous comments, the party had to react quickly and strongly. Noticing the way the entire episode was shaping up, party high command is said to have sent a message to repair the damage.

Ms. Surekha lost control of herself and named some film stars linking them to BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, whom she blamed for the trolls against her. The trolling was based on a photograph where BJP MP from Medak M Raghunandan Rao welcomed her with a scarf as she chaired the district officials meeting in Medak.

An emotional Ms. Surekha alleged that KTR encouraged the trolls and sought an apology from him. As the war of words continued, the Minister told the media that some film actors had to leave the industry due to KTR’s ‘black mailing’ tactics.

She blamed KTR for the divorce of actors Samantha and Naga Chaitanya alleging that the previous government and the BRS working president tapped the phones of film stars. This enraged not only the BRS workers but also the film stars who took to ‘X’ condemning the language and the content used by her. KTR sent her a strongly-worded legal notice seeking unconditional apology or face the law.

The accusations and counter-allegations snowballed into a controversy. The Congress party senior leadership also felt the Minister’s outburst and dragging of some reputed film stars was uncalled for and quite damaging as the reputation of those film stars was at stake. The film stars enjoy some respect in society and the Minister should be cautious while referring to their names.

Telangana Congress chief convinced Konda Surekha to apologise

Sources said, at the instance of the party high command and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud had a long conversation with the Minister convincing her to withdraw the comments against actor Samantha and apologise to her before it further damaged her reputation and also the party’s.

Mr. Goud is said to have told the Minister that the party backed her totally in seeking an apology from KTR but she had to immediately apologise for dragging Samantha and Nagarjuna’s family into the political battle that the party was waging with the BRS.

Realising that her outburst has caused damage to her reputation and the Congress party, the Minister, on Thursday (October 3, 2024), unconditionally apologised to Samantha and withdrew her remarks.

Published - October 03, 2024 01:26 pm IST