Though AICC leadership has not yet cleared the air on the speculation over change of the PCC leadership, close aides of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who has visited Delhi in the recent past, claim that their party high command is not happy with the functioning of PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana.
To give strength to their argument, the leaders mention Botcha’s inability to get an audience with AICC president Sonia Gandhi though he stayed in the national capital for five days.
According to a senior leader from Seemandhra, Satyanarayana’s bellicosity towards the chief minister seems to have not gone down well with the high command.
“Our high command wants a leader, who can unite all leaders in the party, in the PCC chief’s post.
But Botcha has been fighting with Kiran right from the day he was allocated the transport portfolio.
This quarrelsome nature of Botcha has invited the wrath of the high command,” he said.
There is an opinion among the chief minister’s followers that after becoming PCC chief, Botcha tried to utilise every opportunity to corner Kiran publicly.
Botcha’s public apology to the people on the “power crisis” and his recent remarks that he would be happy if Chiranjeevi was made chief minister are being cited as examples.
According to them, the PCC chief has also tried to put Kiran Kumar Reddy in a tight spot by demanding total prohibition at a time when the government is striving hard to maximise its financial resources and revenue for its various welfare programmes.
An MP from the Telangana region, who returned from Delhi on Saturday, said the high command was not happy with the functioning of either the PCC chief or the chief minister.
According to him, the AICC top brass may take a final call on the issue of change of guard in the state after the monsoon session of Parliament.
A senior minister from Telangana thinks the high command may effect change of guard in the state in a month’s time.
He based his premise on Kiran’s squabble with Union minister S Jaipal Reddy over the issue of allocation of natural gas to the state which did not go well with the high command.