HYDERABAD: The name of TPCC star campaigner and Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy was conspicuously missing from both the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) and the Pradesh Executive Committee (PEC), the state-level decision-making panels appointed by the All-India Congress Committee on Saturday.
This was a turn of events that many senior leaders of the party had been anticipating since Venkat Reddy had not been active in Congress programmes of late, to the extent of not even campaigning in the Munugode byelection as well as skipping the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra.
What stood out in the lists was the prominence given to the Reddy community in the decision-making panels in Telangana Congress -- as many as 42.3% of DCC presidents, 27.3% of general secretaries and PAC, and 35% per cent of PEC are from the Reddy community.
Curiously, Congress in-charge for Karnataka and MLA D Sridhar Babu asked the party to “replace” him with any other senior leader in the PEC and PAC. In a text message to AICC Telangana in-charge Manickam Tagore, Sridhar Babu is learnt to have suggested that any of the senior leaders who have not been accommodated in any panel replace him.
However, Congress sources said that the MLA was dejected by the party not considering the names he recommended for the District’s Congress committee (DCC) posts.While some names on the lists were on expected lines, there were other surprises too in the rejig-- some quite unexpected.
The party dropped former Jubilee Hills MLA P Vishnuvardhan Reddy from the list of State office bearers and appointed his sister P Vijaya Reddy. The party also promoted several official spokespersons to the rank of State general secretaries.
Surprisingly, Dr J Geetha Reddy, a Dalit leader, was dropped from the list of Congress working presidents. However, she figures on both PAC and PEC lists.As promised, Munugode ticket aspirants Punna Kailash Netha and Chalamala Krishna Reddy were inducted into the jumbo list of general secretaries. This list has a whopping 84 names.The party also announced 26 DCC presidents.
A fresh new look
Over 42% of DCC president posts bagged by Reddy community
Geetha Reddy dropped from list of Congress working presidents
P Vijaya Reddy replaces her brother Vishnuvardhan Reddy as office bearer