Soon after the bypolls to seven Assembly segments scheduled for this month, ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh faces an uphill task with another round of by-elections necessitated in 17 other constituencies.

The present round of bypolls to the seven Assembly seats, slated for March 18, itself is an acid test for the party as six of them are in the volatile Telangana region.

The Congress is accused of betraying the Telangana people by not accepting the separate statehood demand despite allegedly making a promise.

The bypolls in five of the six seats in Telangana are necessitated as the incumbent MLAs quit in support of the separate statehood cause. The sitting MLA in another seat died which caused the by-election.

Riding on the strong statehood sentiment, those who resigned are expected to win in their re-election bid.

The by-election in the lone constituency in non- Telangana region is necessitated as the sitting TDP MLA quit in support of Kadapa MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, the ambitious son of late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.

Soon after the March 18 bypolls, the Congress would face the first electoral face-off with Jagan, who quit the party in late 2010 following differences with Congress high command, in the form of by-elections to 17 another seats.

The bypolls in 16 of them are caused as the sitting Congress MLAs were disqualified last week by Assembly Speaker for violating party whip by voting against the Government during a TDP-sponsored no-confidence motion in December last.

While disqualifying the 16 MLAs, the Speaker had accepted the resignation of one MLA of erstwhile Praja Rajyam who shifted loyalty to Jagan.