VIJAYAWADA: Senior Congress leader Gidugu Rudra Raju has been appointed the new president of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC). He replaces former minister Sake Sailajanath. This comes close to the heels of change of guard in Delhi with Mallikarjun Kharge becoming AICC president. Rudra Raju represents the Brahmin community and hails from Amalapuram in Konaseema district.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary KC Venugopal, in a release on Wednesday night, said AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge has approved the appointment of the president, other office-bearers and the 18-member Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the APCC. While the previous APCC had two working presidents, there are four working presidents in the new composition. Senior leader Mastan Vali has been retained as the working president while three others -- Janga Goutham, Padmasree Sunkara and P Rakesh Reddy -- have also been appointed working presidents.
With his two year tenure of Sailajanath as the APCC chief coming to an end, the Congress high command has appointed the new team. Before Sailajanath, former minister N Raghuveera Reddy headed the APCC from 2014-2020. Both the leaders hail from Anantapur district and represented SC and BC communities. The AICC chose to give the post to a Brahmin leader from Coastal Andhra region this time.
The Congress lost its ground in Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation of the State. Its performance in both the 2014 and 2019 elections was dismal. It could not win even a single MLA or MP seat in the two elections.
In the new team, former Union minister MM Pallam Raju has been appointed chairman of the AICC programme implementation committee, while former MP GV Harsha Kumar will be the head of campaign committee. Former working president N Tulasi Reddy has been appointed chairman of media and social media committee.
Senior leaders like Oomen Chandy, former MP KVP Ramachandra Rao, T Subbarami Reddy, K Bapiraju, Chinta Mohan and others are part of the Political Affairs Committee.The Congress coordination committee consists of 33 members and some of them are the heads of party’s frontal organisations.