The much-awaited Pradesh Congress Committee executive list pending for over six months with the high command may be cleared shortly, if the two-month timeframe set by AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi is any indication.
Addressing PCC presidents and Congress Legislature Party leaders at a meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, Mr. Gandhi had directed that the State leaders ensure that not only the PCC executive but all the district and block level committees were constituted without fail. He went to the extent of telling the PCC leaders that their performance would be assessed on that count.
Coming to Andhra Pradesh, sources in the Congress maintained that PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana submitted a list one year ago, which was sent back by party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking certain clarifications.
Objections
Ms. Gandhi, according to a top PCC functionary, had objected to the inclusion of too many MPs and MLAs in the list while ignoring party seniors. She is believed to have told AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad to find out why the list contained the names of half-a-dozen MPs and an equal number of MLAs.
The list was returned to the PCC chief with a direction that suitable corrections be made. Accordingly, the PCC president and Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy revised the list in the presence of AICC secretary K. B. Krishnamurthy last year, adhering to Ms. Gandhi’s directive.
According to sources, the fresh list comprised names of eight vice-presidents, 14 general secretaries and one treasurer. This was against the earlier committee which had as many as 20 general secretaries and a dozen vice-presidents.
The State leadership recommended names of former Ministers J. C. Diwakar Reddy and Md. Ali Shabbir for the vice-president’s post while MPs like Ponnam Prabhakar and others were favoured as party general secretaries. Similarly, names of some MPs and MLAs were dropped to include seniors.
A top PCC functionary expressed confidence that the high command would not sit on the list for long. “We are confident that the revised list will be approved latest by March second week,” a party senior remarked.
