The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Campaign to oust PCC chief?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 29, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Campaign to oust PCC chief?

By W. Chandrakanth

HYDERABAD, APRIL 28. Even before the dust settled down on the elections, resentment has surfaced in the party over the functioning of the Pradesh Congress Committee president, D. Srinivas.

Some of the senior leaders, particularly those belonging to Telangana region, who are cut up with him for various reasons, are holding secret parleys to work against the "interests of the PCC chief."

The effort more or less seems to be aimed at getting him replaced before May 11, the day the results of the Assembly polls are announced.

One of the reasons cited by these partymen is that Mr. Srinivas has lowered the prestige of the party in public view by allegedly messing up the candidates' selection process.

The PCC president's role in the ticket distribution and seat allocation to the TRS had become controversial leading to several senior leaders like P. Shiv Shanker, M. Satyanarayana Rao, K. Keshava Rao and P. Goverdhan Reddy, taking cudgels against him.

Some of those denied ticket as also those who were against allocation of 42 seats to the TRS are holding discussions with a couple of these leaders for launching a campaign against him.

This is causing concern to the PCC president as he is also an aspirant for the Chief Minister post. He is carefully making his moves to seek support for his candidature holding consultations with his well-wishers.

It is learnt that he is in touch with some TRS candidates who contested the elections to mount pressure on the TRS chief to join the Government, just in case.

His statement that there was nothing wrong in forming a coalition Government despite the party securing a majority on its own has not gone down well with many leaders.

Meanwhile, the announcement of the AICC secretary, Jairam Ramesh, that Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy would be the party's Chief Minister candidate, has buoyed the mood of the cadre. There are some sections which did not like it too. The PCC president, predictably, was irked by it while former MLAs like K.R. Suresh Reddy, N. Raghuveera Reddy, J. Rammohan Rao, D. Sridhar and Sabitha Indra Reddy and former the PCC president, M. Satyanarayana Rao welcomed the same.

Mr. Suresh Reddy and Mr. Raghuveera Reddy told The Hindu that "the mandate of people is as much for YSR. If the party fails to understand this, it would be difficult for elected Congress representatives to even go back to their constituencies."

Mr. Satyanarayana Rao said that Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy's hard work coupled with Sonia Gandhi's leadership qualities paved the way for the party's good performance in the elections (in the light of the exit poll predictions).

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