VIJAYAWADA : City Congress committee president Pyla Sominaidu caused ripples in the party circles by getting the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee to approve a jumbo committee list with 233 names on it.

Notwithstanding the large number of new faces, Mr. Sominaidu said those left out need not worry because he proposed to come out with a second list.

Followers of Vijayawada East MLA Vangaveeti Radhakrishna were quick to find fault with Mr. Sominaidu for not giving them due representation.

The followers of Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal and Kankipadu MLA Devineni Rajasekhar were also not happy. Mr. Rajasekhar reportedly spoke to Mr. Sominaidu on Saturday and expressed displeasure over the non-inclusion of several of his workers.

Women activists of the party are unhappy because only 14 of them could make it to the committee, though more than 70 should have found place as per the 33 per cent norm.

Many are doubly enraged with Mr. Sominaidu because he had accommodated persons who contested as candidates of the BJP and even made a long-deceased person as one of the 41 secretaries.

Party loyalists excluded

A majority of the names on the list approved by the APCC were not familiar even to very senior Congress leaders.

APCC executive member Kolanukonda Sivaji said, "Many on the people on the list are not familiar to me.

Senior leaders who have been loyal to the party for several years have not been included," he said and cited Gummadi Lakshman Rao as an example.

The only people happy with Mr Sominaidu's selection seem to be those from his community. It is not `nagara (city) committee but a nagarala (Mr. Sominaidu's community) committee' quipped a senior Congress leader.

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