Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who has been nominated as AICC general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh, has said that he is happy with the new post as it is a ‘challenging job.’
Speaking to media persons at his residence at Puthuppally on Sunday afternoon, Mr. Chandy said he had kept away from accepting any position in Kerala after the defeat of the party under his leadership. “I am thankful to party president Rahul Gandhi for offering me this new mission and I accept it in its entirety,” he said.
He said the Congress high command was deputing him to Andhra Pradesh for the third time in his career. “The first time was in 1988 when the then AICC president Rajiv Gandhi deputed him to lead the drought relief operations.” The next year he was again deputed to Andhra Pradesh as election observer of the party in five districts of Telangana.
He said the next one year was important for the party as it was going to face Parliament elections. As far as Andhra Pradesh was concerned, it would also go to the Assembly polls along with it.
Reacting to a question, he said: “There is no element of dissatisfaction from any quarters at all regarding the AICC decision to nominate him as the general secretary.”
To another question, he said his new position would not make any difference to the functioning of the party in the State as he was not holding any position here. Asked about the timing of the decision (when the Chengannur Assembly segment was going to polls on Monday), Mr. Chandy said it was not proper to link a party decision with a byelection.
He supported the AICC move to infuse young blood into the party and said the party needed both the experience of the senior leadership and the vitality of the youth. According to him, issues such as bringing back the Kerala Congress (M) into the UDF fold would not be affected as the Congress and the UDF were functioning with a ‘joint leadership.’
“Even when the UDF had the majority of just two members during the tenure of the last UDF ministry under him, he could complete his tenure with the help of the joint leadership,” he said.
