TS Congress senior leaders yearn for CWC, AICC posts

Hyderabad: Senior leaders of Telangana Congress are hoping for a place in the Working Committee and as the office bearers of All India Congress Committee as Sonia Gandhi has taken over the reins.

The seniors were happy with the decision of the Working Committee to elect Sonia as the interim president of the party.

They said that things would be different from now on under her leadership. Seniors of Telangana Congress said that the Working Committee and body of the AICC may be revamped to rejuvenate the party after second consecutive defeat in the Parliament elections.

Former member of the National Disaster Management Commission Marri Shashidhar Reddy said that Sonia's leadership would bring a change in the party.

He said that while rejecting Rahul Gandhi's resignation, CWC, on May 25, recommended, " After a thorough introspection had requested him for a complete overhaul and a detailed restructuring at every level of the party". The CWC had also suggested that a plan to that effect shall come into force at the earliest.

He said that Rahul Gandhi had relented and agreed to continue and, they were sure that he would have taken all necessary steps in that direction.

He said that Telangana leaders are confident that Sonia Gandhi will use all her experience for a "thorough introspection and undertake a complete overhaul and detailed restructuring at all levels of the party" in tune with the CWC resolution.

He said that when Rahul Gandhi has taken over the party reins two years' ago he wanted the resignation of all the functionaries of the party at all levels so that he could have a free hand to deal with the situation. He said that now also the party needs a Kamaraj-2 arrangement for the restructuring of the party.

On other hand the Telangana Congress was not given representation in the Working Committee and senior positions in the office bearers in the last revamp. No leader of Telangana was made member of CWC and general secretary of the party.

Though the party has seniors like S Jaipal Reddy (who died recently) Marri Shashidhar Reddy, J Geetha Reddy, K Jana Reddy, V Hanumantha Rao, M Kodanda Reddy and Ponnala Laxmaiah, none of them have been inducted into CWC and general secretary positions when Rahul revamped them in 2017.

Now with the return of Sonia at the helm of the affairs the seniors are hoping to get a position in CWC and as office bearers.

Party leaders said that now Telangana Congress is left with six senior most leaders, K Jana Reddy, M Shashidhar Reddy, J Geetha Reddy, Ponnala Laxmaiah, M Kodanda Reddy and V Hanumantha Rao.

Except Shashidhar Reddy rest of them were elected to Assembly in 1989 or earlier. Marri became member of Assembly in 1992.

The party leaders said that one of them may be given general secretary or CWC membership so that they could lead the party.

They said that if a leader from the state is appointed in the senior position, he would be able to communicate the ground situation to the high command.