With the crucial Jubilee Hills Assembly bypoll days away and amid setbacks from courts over its move to implement 42% reservation for Backward Classes (BCs) in local bodies, a “caste war” has erupted within the Telangana Congress over contract works related to the Medaram Jatara, a biennial tribal festival.

Trouble first broke out within the Congress last week after state Forest Minister Konda Surekha, who hails from the Padmasali Backward Class community, accused her Cabinet colleague Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy of “interfering” in the Rs 71-crore contract for the Medaram Jatara, weeks after Revanth Reddy urged the Centre to declare it a national festival and allocate funds for it.

Things turned ugly late on Wednesday after Surekha’s daughter, Konda Sushmitha, accused Srinivasa Reddy of

See Full Page