Two PCCs in a day or two: Diggy

According to party sources, the high command has also decided to replace the APCC president Botcha Satyanarayana. The former revenue minister N Raghuveera Reddy and Kanna Lakshminarayana are said to be the front-runners for the post. The party leadership feels that splitting of the PCC was most urgent as party leaders from both the regions are learnt to have told the party vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday that it would not be possible to face the elections under APCC umbrella.

Sources said that though the Congress high command had earlier wanted to replace Botcha with another powerful leader from the Kapu community but the Seemandhra leaders succeeded in convincing the high command that it should give a chance to BC leader from Rayalaseema if it wants to woo the weaker sections into the party fold. Following this, the party high command is understood be considering the name of N Raghuveera Reddy.

The Seemandhra leaders told the high command that if the Congress wants to checkmate the TDP it should use the BC card. For Telangana PCC, D Srinivas, K Jana Reddy and KR Suresh Reddy are said to be the frontrunners. The party high command is understood to be picking one leader from the numerous aspirants by keeping in mind the future equations between the Congress and the TRS.

However, Jana Reddy , confined himself to Hyderabad on Saturday but made his supporters including DCC presidents to write a letter to Sonia Gandhi urging her to consider Jana Reddy’s name.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders from Telangana, still smarting under the TRS' refusal to merge with the national party, have written a letter to the high command against tie-up with any party and said they could contest the upcoming elections on their own. "We are not craving for merger or alliance with any party. Only the Congress has the guts and capacity to fight the elections on its own," the leaders said in an apparent reference to K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS)'s move against merger, Jana Reddy told media on Saturday.

However, the Congress High Command feels that the Telangana Congress leaders had failed to seize upon the advantage of the Congress-led UPA Government creating Telangana State. The Telangana Congress leaders are Hyderabad-centric and failed to go to town and claim credit for the creation of Telangana. The TRS, on the other hand, has been quick to seize upon the opportunity and claim the credit that it was because of its agitation that the Congress bowed and created Telangana, the party leadership feels.