The Telangana Congress leaders, including their in-charge general secretary from AICC R C Khuntia, are trying to attribute the party’s debacle in the recent assembly elections in the state to tampering of EVMs and large scale manipulation of votes in the final hours.But their alliance partner Prof M Kodandaram of Telangana Jana Samithi attributed the defeat of Maha Kootami to the over-confidence of the Congress and Telugu Desam Party leaders.

“The Congress leaders are not making a serious introspection into the political reasons that led to the defeat, but are trying to cover up their failures by blaming it on the EVMs. The main reason for the debacle is lack of adequate time for taking the agenda of Maha Kootami into the people,” he said.Kodandaram said having been associated with TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao, he had a fair understanding of the latter’s political and election strategies.

“I told the Congress and TDP leaders that we needed at least two months of time for campaigning so that we could take the agenda of the Maha Kootami into the people effectively. But the TDP and Congress leaders said three weeks or even 15 days’ time is enough for the campaigning,” he said.He pointed out that the Congress and the TDP leaders had been confined only to public meetings and rallies.

“There was no time to conduct door-to-door campaigning. Even senior leaders had wasted their energies only in sharing dais with Rahul Gandhi and N Chandrababu Naidu, rather than making extensive tour of the state,” Kodandaram said.He clarified that he did not take any decision regarding contesting in Lok sabha polls and dismissed the rumours that he would be nominated to Rajya Sabha by the Congress party.

ON the federal front initiative taken up by KCR, Kodandaram said the chances of its success are slim and remarked that only KCR would be able to tell the real purpose of the initiative.

He said KCR entering into politics of AP would only benefit Chandrababu Naidu.