Congress and TDP to slug it out for KDCCB post

The Congress and Telugu Desam parties will slug it out for the Krishna District Cooperative Central Bank president’s post. The winner of the DCCB chief post usually goes on to become chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative Bank (APCOB) because Krishna district, considered the birthplace of the cooperative movement, has 425 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies, the largest number of societies in a district.

Some of the districts in Telangana district have just 40 to 50 PACS, which is just ten per cent of the PACS in Krishna. The Telugu Desam announced that Devapudi PACS (Mudinepalli mandal) president Edupugandi Venkata Ramaiah will be its candidate for the DCCB president’s post. The Congress has not yet announced a candidate, but former Minister Pinnamaneni Venkateswara Rao was projected as one initially.

The name of former Krishna District Agricultural Market Yard Chairman Kanchi Rama Rao, who won from the Tiruvuru PACS, is now being heard as yet another potential candidate.

Both the Congress and the Telugu Desam have claimed to have won a little over 200 PACS, but pundits of cooperative elections have put the figure at around 170 PACS. The YSR Congress seems to be trailing far behind with a little over 50 PACS. The remaining 30 PACS are in the control of the Left parties and independents.

In most of the societies, where elections were unanimous, agreements have been arrived at by directors of PACS to be presidents on a rotation basis. The directors cutting across party lines decided that they should vote for the DCCB president on the basis of area and not on the basis of parties.

This system was adopted in the different PACS to minimise the influence of money. In societies where no understanding was reached the votes of society members were allegedly sold for a price that ranged between Rs.5,000 and Rs.40,000.