PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana is understood to have retracted from his tough posture on the nine pro-Jagan Mohan Reddy MLAs of the Congress.
The state Congress president, who had said two days ago that he expelled the nine legislators who joined the YSRC, seems to be repenting about his statement saying that it was just an “off-the-cuff remark” and he did not mean it.
The PCC chief said these things during an informal chat with journalists at Gandhi Bhavan here on Monday. Later, he met some of his close aides there.
In a candid talk with reporters, Botcha expressed his displeasure over the way his remarks on nine pro-Jagan MLAs were carried in the media. He said he made those remarks only in reply to the questions of reporters but did not with an aggressive posture.
Later, he told his close aides: “Replying to the questions of reporters, I only told them that our party has initiated disciplinary action against those nine legislators who are sailing with Jagan’s party. But the mediapersons portrayed it as if I have held the press conference only to announce expulsion of of the nine legislators.”
It is learnt that soon after PCC chief’s announcement was carried in the media, several of his detractors complained against the PCC chief to the party high command along with clippings of the media reports, alleging that Botcha was trying to destabilise the Kiran Kumar Reddy’s government in retaliation to the letter sent by PCC vice-president S Indrasain Reddy seeking disciplinary action against Botcha for participating in the Jai Andhra Pradesh meeting at Rajahmundry.
Sources said that the plethora of complaints made to the high command against him over the expulsion issue, at a time when the government was surviving on a wafer-thin majority, has hit the morale of Botcha. Hence, his retraction.