With the Telangana Assembly scheduled to start its first session from January 17, the Congress party has decided to send senior leader and Parliament member from Kerala K.C. Venugopal as the observer for the election of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader.
Though there is no clarity as of now as to who is the choice of the Congress high command, the party however seems to have arrived at a decision that one of the two posts — TPCC president and CLP leader — will go to the Reddy community. So the caste combination will play a crucial role in the CLP leader election. Congress has 19 members in the Assembly now.
Several senior leaders are eyeing the post that gives the status as Leader of the Opposition along with Cabinet rank and they indicate that seniority and experience will be the prime criteria for the nomination from the party, and the race seems to be between TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Madhira MLA Bhatti Vikramarka.
Few choices
Both were MLAs in the previous House and have the experience of running the show. The unexpected defeat of senior leaders like K. Jana Reddy, J. Geeta Reddy, D.K. Aruna, A. Revanth Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy has literally left the field open. The other MLAs with the experience of serving as the ministers are Sabita Indra Reddy and D. Sreedhar Babu but both were not present in the last Assembly.
Senior leaders in the party said that though Mr. Uttam Reddy is not too keen on the position his detractors are already lobbying against him in New Delhi blaming him for the party’s defeat in the recent polls. He, however, has not revealed his intentions openly so far. Another aspirant throwing his hat in the ring is Mr. Bhatti Vikramarka, who had earlier served as the Deputy Speaker.
Lobbying is on
A Dalit leader from Khammam district where Congress bagged maximum seats this time, Mr. Vikramarka is said to be using his close relations with Koppula Raju, a close confidant of Mr. Gandhi. Munugode MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy has also made his intentions clear that he wants to be in the race for the CLP post and if that is not possible he is seeking to head the TPCC. He is a first time MLA though he represented the Bhongir Parliament constituency.
Another name cropping up is of Mr. Sridhar Babu, four-time MLA from Manthani. Mild and well-educated he also carries a rich pedigree with his late father D. Sripada Rao serving as the Speaker and a big name in Telangana politics at that time. Sources said Mr. Sridhar Babu too is not very keen though he will readily accept the post if offered.
