As Congress President Sonia Gandhi is holidaying in the cool climes of Himachal Pradesh, the race for key organizational posts in the state is hotting up.
However, the contenders will have to put up with the suspense for some more days as the final decision will be taken only after Sonia returns from her trip.
The candidates for the posts of APCC Chief, Deputy Chief Minister and Assembly Speaker will be finalized in the first week of June. The indications from Delhi are that the two coastal Andhra leaders Kanna Lakshminarayana and Botsa Satyanarayana, both belonging to Kapu community, have emerged as front-runners for PCC president post, according to a lead story in “Eenadu”.
The Telangana leaders including D Sridhar Babu, Shabbir Ali, Sambhani Chandrasekhar and Ponnala Lakshmaiah are also in the race.
The Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has argued with the high command in favour of a Telangana leader for the coveted organizational post. However, the central leadership is keen on selecting a leader from coastal Andhra for the post while Damodar Raja Narasimham, a dalit leader from Telangana and a senior minister, is all set to be made the Deputy Chief Minister.
There are also indications that the party is considering having two post of Deputy Chief Minister, one each for Telangana and coastal Andhra.
The recent humiliating drubbing in Kadapa by-elections has prompted a re-think in the party’s strategy to tackle the threat from YSR Congress Party.
It wants to put in place a multi-pronged action plan to set its house in order. Based on the inputs given by the AICC General Secretary in-charge of AP Ghulam Nabi Azad after his two-day mission to the state, the party high command has decided on the broad contours of the action plan.
Despite growing number of complaints against the Chief Minister’s style of functioning, the high command appears to be in no mood for a change of guard in the state. The central leadership feels that frequent change of chief ministers, a propensity that had brought disrepute to the party in the past, could damage its prospects in the 2014 elections.
However, according to a report in “Andhra Jyothy”, the Chief Minister will be firmly told to change his ways and be more accommodative and responsive.
Keen to boost the sagging morale of the party, the Congress leadership is understood to have given a go-ahead for cabinet expansion in June along with filling up the lucrative nominated posts. The cabinet hopefuls can look forward to realizing their dreams as the high command has turned its attention on deciding the candidates for inclusion in the expanded cabinet.
The challenges facing the main opposition Telugu Desam Party, as its 30th “Mahanadu” commences on Friday, was given prominent coverage across major publications. According to “Eenadu”, there will be no resolution on Telangana as being demanded by the suspended rebel leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy.
It will be interesting to see whether the annual conclave will serve as a launching pad for Nara Lokesh’s political arangetram. There is also suspense over whether N Harikrishna, who is said to be nursing a strained relationship with his brother-in-law and the party chief N Chandrababu Naidu, will turn up for the meeting.
