Telangana Congress tweets bizarre explanation for MPs' not voting on Women's Bill, deletes post later

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Congress, through its official handle on 'X', has admitted that due to a 'constraints', its MPs were unable to vote in favour of the Women's Reservation Bill that was passed in the Parliament this week.

The Telangana Congress drew huge flak from all quarters after it came to light that the three MPs from the State- A Revanth Reddy, Komatireddy Venkata Reddy and N Uttam Kumar Reddy - abstained from voting on the Bill.

The Lok Sabha took up voting on the Bill around 6 pm on September 21, 2023. Revanth Reddy, along with former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Bellaiah Naik and former minister G Vinod were waiting since 5.30 pm at TPCC observer and incharge Manikrao Thakre. The screening committee meeting was scheduled the same evening. Then they headed to the Congress war room. Around 6.30 pm, the other two MPs, Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, reached the war room directly.

The Congress MPs then headed to the Lok Sabha and told some TV channels too that they were going for voting on the Women’s Reservations Bill. However, by the time they reached Lok Sabha, the doors were closed and the voting was completed.

Offering a bizarre explanation for not voting, the Telangana Congress tweeted on Saturday that, "The Congress party, under the chairmanship of Mallikarjun Kharge and the leadership of Sonia Gandhi supported the Bill this week, clearly emphasising the dream of Rajiv Gandhi and the policy of the Congress party. We may not have been there at the time of voting, but our full support was given at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Hyderabad. Our leaders could not attend as they were working for the interests of the State. It is a shame that some are politicising it."

The tweet was, however, deleted a while later after facing criticism. The tweet went on to condemn Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) that he did not support the Congress when the Telangana bifurcation Bill was being passed in the Parliament in 2014.

"At that time when the Congress MPs were fighting for bifurcation of Telangana State in the Parliament and were being pepper sprayed, can you tell what KCR did without supporting the Bill? Why did not visit our MPs who were admitted to the hospital with pepper sprays? KCR is a wicked man who used the Telangana movement for his political ambitions," the Congress tweeted.