TPCC in fire-fighting mode: Remaining Cabinet berths to be filled soon

Hyderabad: With the negative fall-out of Sunday’s Cabinet expansion reaching proportions that portend incalculable harm to the Congress party’s prospects in future elections, the state unit of the Congress, which filled three berths with great difficulty, is in fire-fighting mode now to fill the remaining three shortly.

Armed with the writing on the wall, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud on Monday rushed to Delhi to discuss the sensitive matter with the party high command. They placed before the high command the mounting discontent over the present Cabinet expansion among communities perceived to have been ‘ignored’.

The All India Congress Committee, which too, on its own, has been closely following developments within the party’s state unit following the induction of three new MLAs into the Cabinet, has directed the State leadership to not only fill the remaining positions, but also ensure that all other posts, including nominated ones and key party positions within the party, are filled at the earliest. 

During the meeting between Revanth Reddy and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal in the presence of Mahesh Kumar, a decision was taken to douse the trouble within the party following the latest Cabinet expansion.

During the hour-long meeting, the State leadership was asked to speed up the process and avoid delay in filling positions at various levels.

Further, there was a proposal to balance the caste and social equations by adding up at least two Deputy Chief Ministers positions in the existing cabinet.

The development comes in wake of the warnings issued by those inclined to resign from the party since they failed to get a berth.

Taking cue from the open threat of resignation of Ibrahimpatnam MLA Malreddy Ranga Reddy, the followers of Munugode MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy too have threatened to resign en masse, though the MLA himself remained incommunicado by switching off his mobile.

Like in the case of Bodhan leaders, leaders from Munugode too have vowed to damage the party’s prospects in the next elections.

All told, keeping in mind the upcoming polls to

local bodies, a decision was taken to first placate the restive senior leaders within the party in fire-fighting mode.