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Cong hunts for young leadership in Telangana but consensus remains elusive
Congress leaders have held a series of meeting since Monday where they expressed their views on the need to bring about radical changes in the party, weed out unwanted and old elements and bring in young and dynamic leadership.
The demand of Congress members in Telangana for a dynamic young leadership and a complete overhaul of the party in the state following a humiliating defeat to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the recent bye-election to Huzurnagar assembly seat, continues to grow but a consensus remains elusive, a senior leader said Wednesday.
Since Monday, there has been series of meetings at Gandhi Bhavan, the headquarters of Telangana Congress in Hyderabad, where the party leaders openly expressed their views on the need to bring about radical changes in the party, weed out unwanted and old elements and bring in young and dynamic leadership.
AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Karnataka minister and observer for Telangana H K Patil and party general secretary in-charge of Telangana affairs R C Khuntia gave a patient hearing to the views expressed by the leaders. While Azad stayed for two days and left Tuesday night, Patel is still camping in Hyderabad.
Pradesh Congress Committee president and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy, whose wife N Padmavati Reddy lost the bypoll in Huzurnagar to Telangana Rashtra Samithi candidate Sanampudi Saidi Reddy with a huge margin of over 43,000 votes, offered to step down from the PCC chief post owning moral responsibility.
“I have already completed four years as the PCC chief. I have no interest whatsoever to continue in the post. I am ready to give up the post to any person selected by the party high command,” Uttam Reddy said.
The Congress has six MLAs in the Telangana Assembly while the BJP and the TDP have once each. The AIMIM has seven members while its ally and the ruling TRS has 104 lawmakers in the in 119-member House.
An AICC leader familiar with the development said there was an overwhelming demand from the cadre to hand over the party reins to a relatively young leader with state-wide acceptability.
“Unfortunately, there has been no consensus in the Telangana Congress as to who the right choice is for the PCC post. There are serious differences within the party leaders,” he said.
He pointed out that though there were many seniors in the race for the PCC chief post based on their caste equations, none of them has either the energy or the dynamism to take on the ruling TRS. What the party needs now is young leadership.
The front runners for the PCC chief post at present are Malkajgiri MP and PCC working president A Revanth Reddy, Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and senior MLA D Sridhar Babu.
Komatireddy Venkat Reddy openly declared to the media that if given a chance, he would bring about major changes in the party and infuse new energy into the cadre. “At the same time, I am ready to cooperate with whoever the high command chooses,” he said on Wednesday. “The sooner the party takes a decision, the better because we need to face municipal elections shortly,” he said.
Though Revanth Reddy is also seriously lobbying for the post, he is not coming out in the open, because many seniors are opposing his candidature because he had defected to the Congress from the Telugu Desam Party only two years ago. “Who is Revanth to claim the PCC chief post? It is an insult to seniors,” former MP and AICC secretary V Hanumantha Rao said.
Azad acknowledged the need to bring in a new leadership to the Telangana Congress and assured to take it up with the high command at the earliest, the AICC leader quoted above said.
