Factionalism rife in city Cong

hyderabad: with barely a few months to go for the elections to the municipal corporation of hyderabad (mch), the congress presents the picture of a divided house with group politics playing a major role among the city leaders. the congress bagged 24 out of 100 corporation seats when the elections to the mch were held last in 1986. the party, which had three legislators from the city in the last assembly, has only a lone metropolitan representative in the present house.there is division among party leaders about the selection of party candidates for the ensuing elections. the city party unit is divided between several groups, one led by former clp leader p janardhan reddy, another by asifnagar mla d nagender, the third one owing loyalty to aicc secretary v hanumanth rao, and others to former mlas kodanda reddy,m shashidhar reddy and senior leader pitla krishna. the congress has not even organised constituency-level meetings to boost morale among the cadre. no attempt also have been made by the party leadership to bring about a rapprochement between various groups, a senior leader said. meanwhile, with factionalism rife in the party, ticket aspirants have started visiting the houses of their leaders.