Congress to Split APCC; Raghuveera Likely to Replace Botcha Soon
After much dillydallying, the Congress high command is understood to have decided to split the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) into Seemandhra (AP) and Telangana PCCs following the bifurcation of the state.
In all likelihood, APCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana might be replaced with N Raghuveera Reddy, though Kanna Lakshminarayana’s candidature for the top post is still under consideration. As far as the Telangana PCC chief’s post is concerned, the party leadership is in a bind, with leaders from both Reddy and Backward Communities playing it hard.
The AICC high command might announce its decision to set up two PCCs on Monday.
In fact, the Congress leadership, which had been reluctant to form the Telangana PCC in the wake of caste-ridden factions among aspirants to become its first chief, on Saturday decided to set up a separate PCC for Telangana as T-Congress leaders had told the party leadership that it would be difficult for them to go to the general polls under the APCC.
According to sources, when several Congress leaders from Telangana and Seemandhra met AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi and party state affairs in-charge Digvijaya Singh in Delhi on Saturday, the party top brass informed them that it was setting up two separate PCCs for both the regions by Monday.It is learnt that though Botcha took up intense lobbying to remain in the APCC chief’s post, the AICC leadership is in favour of replacing him with a new face so as to rejuvenate the party cadre in the run-up to the general polls.Though the Congress high command had earlier wanted to install another powerful leader from the influential Kapu community, to which Botcha belongs, in place of him, after holding lengthy discussions with its Seemandhra leaders, it changed its strategy.
“Instead of appointing another Kapu leader in the APCC chief’s post, the party leadership is in favour of nominating a BC leader from Rayalaseema so as to attract weaker sections into the party’s fold,” a senior leader said.
Though Botcha is from Thurpu Kapu, a backward community in North Andhra, the AICC leadership now wants to appoint a leader from other weaker sections to checkmate the TDP, which is banking on the ‘BC card’, Seemandhra leaders say.
Because of this, the party high command is learnt to have zeroed in on N Raghuveera Reddy, who hails from the Yadava community. However, supporters of Kanna Lakshminarayana are still hopeful that his candidature would be considered.
Coming to the to-be-constituted TPCC, D Srinivas, K Jana Reddy and KR Suresh Reddy are said to be the front-runners for the post of party chief.
Even though there is intense competition for the post among party leaders from the Reddy and BC communities, the party leadership is said to be considering the name of a leader who is acceptable to all sections.
The party is understood to be picking one leader from the numerous aspirants by keeping in mind the future equations between the Congress and the TRS.