AICC president Sonia Gandhi, who is unhappy about the debacle of the Congress in the recent byelections in the state, is understood to have made no secret of her displeasure to chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and asked him to put in place measures immediately to infuse new life into the party.
Reddy, who arrived in Delhi on Friday morning to sign on the nomination papers of UPA's presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee, drove straight to Sonia Gandhi's residence and was closeted with her for over 45 minutes.
It was his first visit to Delhi after the byelections. He has not reacted to the party's debacle so far.
According to sources, Sonia Gandhi asked Kiran Kumar Reddy to make the party acceptable to the people.
Though she acknowledged the sympathy factor that worked in favour of Jagan Mohan Reddy, she nonetheless wanted him to ensure that the welfare programmes meant for various sections of society reached them properly.
She also wanted him to ensure that both the party and the government worked in coordination and that she would not like to hear any complaints on this count.
After his 45-minute conference with Sonia Gandhi, Kiran Kumar Reddy left 10 Jan Path quietly and drove to the Parliament House where he and Botcha signed Pranab Mukherjee's nomination papers.
The chief minsiter also met Union ministers AK Antony (defence), P Chidambaram (home) and Ghulam Nabi Azad (health) who is also in charge of the Congress party affairs in Andhra Pradesh.
"There is no move to effect a change of guard in the state," said a leader close to the chief minister.
"At the moment the party leadership is preoccupied with the presidential election. By the time the election is over, the leadership will have come to know what exactly went wrong in the byelections. I am sure there is no move now to have another leader at the helm in the state," he said.
PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana too arrived in Delhi in the morning but by a different flight and was closeted with senior leaders. He is yet to get an appointment with Sonia Gandhi.
Botcha was in Delhi recently for two days and explained his perception of what went wrong for the party in the byelections to Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vayalar Ravi and Motilal Vora.