Bowing to the pressure from Telangana leaders, the Congress party leadership on Monday decided to give the post of the APCOB chairman to the region.
But the five- year tenure will be shared, perhaps for the first time, by two leaders from the region as intense lobbying by the Telangana Ministers forced Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and the PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana to go for consensus to satisfy the aspirants.
Accordingly, Mahabubnagar DCCB chief Veera Reddy will head the APCOB for the first two-and-a-half years while Karimnagar DCCB chairman Ravinder Rao will head it during remaining period.
Unanimous decision
After the PCC chief chaired a meeting with the DCCB and the DCMS chiefs in Gandhi Bhavan, Ministers – K. Parthasarathy and Kondru Murali Mohan announced the party decision. “It was a unanimous decision that the APCOB post will be shared by two DCCB chiefs from Telangana,” Mr. Parthasarathy said.
It may be mentioned that at a get-together hosted on Sunday by the Chief Minister, the decision on the APCOB chairman was deferred owing to intense competition. Before leaving for Chennai on Monday, the Chief Minister spoke to the PCC president and preferred to give opportunity to Telangana leaders by sharing the post. In the process, Krishna DCCB chief Pinnamaneni Venkateswara Rao, who was a strong contender for the top post was ignored.
It was a major achievement for Ministers – D. K. Aruna and D. Sridhar Babu, who managed to have their way with the Chief Minister even though they faced stiff challenge from their colleagues such as Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raj Narasimha and K. Jana Reddy, who had backed Medak and Nalgonda DCCB chiefs respectively.
Sources said Ms. D.K. Aruna reportedly convinced the Chief Minister that she had single-handedly worked for the party during the cooperative elections at a time when some own party men were thinking of shifting loyalties.
Mr. Sridhar Babu, on his part, told the Chief Minister that Karimnagar should be considered for the APCOB post as the party had overcome stiff statehood sentiment and won majority seats.
