Ponnala for T, Raghuveera for AP
New PCC Chiefs For Both States: Ponnala For T, Raghuveera for AP. The Congress high command has embarked upon a massive exercise to regain its lost ground in Seemandhra and reap benefits of making Telangana State a reality.
New PCC chiefs for both States named
Andhra Pradesh
- PCC President – N Raghuveera Reddy
- Election Campaign Committee chief: K Chiranjeevi
- Campaign committee co-chairman: Dokka Manikya Varaprasad
- Manifesto Committee chief: Anam Ramanarayana Reddy
- Manifest Committee co– chairman: Panabaka Lakshmi
Telangana
- PCC President – Ponnala Lakshmaiah
- Election Campaign Committee chief: Damodara Rajanarasimha
- Campaign Committee co-chairman: Md Shabbir Ali
- Election Manifesto Committee chief: D Sridhar Babu
- Manifesto Committee co–chairman: Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka
- Working committee president: Uttam Kumar Reddy
- Congress to play BC card in both States
- Challenges TDP to make a BC person the CM in AP
- Both PCC chiefs to face four elections
- Ponnala can be a strong contender for CM post as well
- Raghuveera has an unenviable task
Hyderabad/New Delhi: The Congress high command has embarked upon a massive exercise to regain its lost ground in Seemandhra and reap benefits of making Telangana State a reality.
As a first step in that direction, the party has divided the Pradesh Congress committee into two, Telangana PCC and APCC.
Interestingly, it has picked leaders from the backward community to head the two units. While Ponnala Lakshmaiah has been appointed as the TPCC president, N Raghuveera Reddy from Rayalaseema region will head the APCC.
It appears that the Congress party now wants to go to the people with the slogan that only it is committed to the concept of social justice. The party wants to take on TDP in the successor state and challenge its chief to announce if he could accommodate BCs in highest posts whether it is in Andhra or Telangana region. The party will launch a campaign, saying that Naidu had announced that a BC would be the Chief Minister in Telangana as he knows that the party does not stand a chance there. He does not make such commitment in regard to Seemandhra, the party leaders say.
The reconstitution of the APCC and creating the TPCC indicates that Rahul has had a key role in it; he has been striving to infuse fresh blood into the party units.
The 23 members of Telangana PCC, apart from Ponnala, are: S Jaipal Reddy, D Srinivas, C Damodar Raja Narasimha, K Jana Reddy, V Hanumanth Rao, M Satyanarayana Rao, K R Suresh Reddy, Marri Shashidhar Reddy, Mohammad Shabbir Ali, P Balram Naik, J Geetha Reddy, D Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar, Anjan Kumar Yadav, Danam Nagender, Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu, D K Aruna, Renuka Chowdhury, Savita Reddy, Rapolu Anand Bhaskar, P Sudhakar Reddy, Fareeduddin and K R Amos.
The septuagenarian Ponnala is a BC, an aeronautical engineer by profession and has been a loyal Congress man. He was the minister for major irrigation in the YSR government from 2004-2009 and later became the Minister for IT and Communications. He was also said to be in the race for the Chief Minister of the new state of Telangana.
Though several other leaders like K Jana Reddy, Damodar Rajanarasimha and others were in the race and lobbying hard, the high command finally decided to play the BC card in both the regions. Telangana Congress leaders consider the TPCC chief’s post as a gateway to become the first CM of the new state By this, the Congress party also gave a clear indication that it wants to put a check to the Reddy hegemony in the State, which, it feels, had virtually wiped out the party from the state’s political arena.
According to sources, the high command was also miffed with PCC president Botcha Satyanrayana for his “mishandling” of the party affairs. Though Botcha had intensely lobbied to see that he continued in the post till elections were over, the party president and Rahul Gandhi are learnt to have taken a different view on the issue. As Botcha realised the inevitable, he met Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday and asked her to relieve him from the responsibilities on health grounds.
Speaking to The Hans India. The 58-year-old Raghuveera Reddy expressed his gratitude to Sonia Gandhi and said that he has been entrusted with a very challenging task. The party is facing tough time in the Seemandhra region. Following the division of the state, many leaders have left the party and some more are contemplating to resign. He said he would appeal to all those Congress leaders to stand by the party during the troubled times and strengthen it so that it can bounce back to its old glory.
He called upon the rank and file to bury all differences and resolve to work hard as the party has to face four elections within a short time. Asked how he would deal with Kiran Kumar Reddy’s new party, Raghuveera said he would treat it on a par with all other opposition parties. Reddy was the Agriculture Minister in the YSR government and the Revenue Minister in Kiran’s government.
The Pradesh Election Committee of Seemandhra, which is headed by APCC President N Raghuveera Reddy, has 21 other members. They are: V Kishore Chandra Deo, Botcha Satyanarayana, K Chiranjeevi, Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, M M Pallam Raju, Panabaka Lakshmi, J D Seelam, Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy, Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, K V P Ramachander Rao, Kanna Lakshminarayana, C Ramachandraiah, Mohammad Ahemdullah, Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad, K Satyanarayana Raju, Chakrapani, Chinta Mohan, Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy, Kondru Murali Mohan, Bala Raju and Nadendla Bhaskar Rao.
