HYDERABAD: The Congress high command on Monday reviewed the organisational affairs of the Telangana unit at a meeting in New Delhi attended by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, AICC in-charge for Telangana Meenakshi Natarajan and TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud.
The meeting, held at Indira Bhavan, focused on the party’s organisational structure, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, coordination between the government and the party, and the political situation in the state.
According to party sources, the AICC sought details on the progress of the SIR exercise, the performance of party booth-level workers, and the functioning of District Congress Committees (DCCs), Mandal Congress Committees and booth-level committees across Telangana.
Sources said the leadership also reviewed coordination between DCC presidents, MLAs, MPs and other party leaders following complaints that some legislators were not cooperating with district party presidents. Meenakshi Natarajan is understood to have submitted a report to the AICC after holding a series of review meetings with ministers, MLAs, MPs, MLCs and district party presidents.
The AICC also reviewed the political situation at the grassroots and discussed whether the Union government’s policies and the state government’s programmes were reaching people effectively. Coordination between the government and the organisation was also discussed.
Sources said the pending expansion of the Telangana Cabinet also figured during the discussions. The leadership is understood to have sought an update from Revanth and Mahesh on internal differences among ministers, MLAs and aspirants for Cabinet berths.
According to sources, some leaders urged the high command to intervene over demands to accommodate members from the same family in the Cabinet and to consider dropping some ministers to assign them organisational responsibilities at the state or national level.
Sources added that the AICC leadership informed the Telangana leaders that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi were currently occupied with developments relating to the Karnataka Cabinet, and that a final discussion on the Telangana Cabinet expansion or reshuffle could be taken up during the second week of next month.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mahesh said the Congress high command had expressed satisfaction with the Telangana unit’s organisational performance.
He said the review covered appointments from the booth level to the state level, besides the functioning of DCCs and MCC presidents. He said Venugopal appreciated the Telangana unit for implementing AICC programmes effectively and described it as one of the party’s strongest organisational units in the country.
Mahesh said the high command had asked the Telangana Congress to further strengthen organisational activities. He also announced that the TPCC Coordination Committee would meet in New Delhi on Wednesday, with Meenakshi Natarajan, Revanth and other committee members expected to attend.
He said the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls would be a key agenda at the meeting. “No eligible voter, particularly the poor, should lose their voting rights. We will intensify our efforts to address the present slowdown in the SIR exercise,” he said.