The ‘one man, one post’ rule favoured by the AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi recently could make some ruling party legislators including the PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana to retain only one post in the days to come.
Posts galore
At least half a dozen MLAs in the State hold the post of either District or City Congress Committee president apart from Satyanarayana himself who is the APcC president.
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If the party’s top brass seriously implements the rule, Congress MLAs Kothapalli Subbarayudu (West Godavari DCC chief), Amanchi Krishna Mohan (Prakasam), Madhusudhan Gupta (Anantapur), T. Vijay Kumar (Visakhapatnam City), Mastan Vali (Guntur City) and Danam Nagender (Greater Hyderabad Congress Committee) might have to quit one post.
Sources said Mr. Satyanarayana enquired with a Minister recently whether the DCC president, who is an MLA, was planning to contest next election.
The Minister, it is understood, had said the MLA would certainly prefer the ticket.
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The PCC chief then said that in tune with the rule, those holding DCC president’s posts would not get the tickets.
When the Minister questioned if the same clause did not apply to the PCC also, Mr. Satyanaryana reportedly confirmed that he would take a decision on either retaining the post or the Ministerial berth in two months.
Highly placed sources said the PCC chief was also asked by the central leadership to take a call.
However, a section of the party leaders maintain that the rule may be relaxed here owing to the prevailing political situation.
Azad raised issue
A senior PCC functionary pointed out that it was the AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, who had raised the issue in the Jaipur Congress plenary.
He wanted to be relieved of the party post as he was holding important portfolio of Health in the Union Cabinet.