To be but not to be: Sonia puts TPCC chief decision on hold

HYDERABAD: For the first time, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has put on hold the appointment of a new chief for the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), owing to rivalry among the Telangana Congress leaders. This was after Sonia signed an appointment order anointing senior Congress leader and MLC T Jeevan Reddy as new TPCC president and Malkajgiri Lok Sabha member A Revanth Reddy as TPCC campaign committee chairman on January 4 evening. 

She took the decision, acting on the report submitted by the AICC in-charge for Telangana, Manickam Tagore, party sources said. A communication to the media was scheduled to be released on January 5. Meanwhile, Tagore gave both Jeevan Reddy and Revanth Reddy hints about the high command’s decision.
Revanth, who has been eyeing the post for a long time, reconciled himself to the inevitability. The same evening he appeared on a local news channel, where he said that leading the campaign committee was more up his alley since a PCC chief would have to confine himself to the four walls of Gandhi Bhavan, the party headquarters. 

The Congress leader said he would take up a State-wide padayatra to win the hearts of the voters and help the party regain its past glory as Campaign Committee chairman. On January 5, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, another key aspirant for the TPCC chief post, reportedly threatened to quit the party. Venkat Reddy that he was a loyal and sincere Congressman and the party should look no further while appointing somebody other than him as president. 

A sulking Venkat Reddy reached out to senior colleague and former Minister K Jana Reddy and conveyed his displeasure. He also informed Jana Reddy that the latter could face the risk of losing the Nagarjunasagar Assembly bypoll as a major repercussion of the decision. He prevailed upon Jana Reddy to write to the party high command and convey his anxiety over a likely bypoll loss if Jeevan Reddy took over as TPCC chief. This apart, there lay the risk of Venkat Reddy charting his own course in another party.

Jana Reddy, who did not want to lose the byelection, saw sense in Venkat Reddy’s argument and spoke to a few leaders close to Sonia. He questioned the logic behind the decision when a crucial bypoll lay ahead. 
The leaders who Jana Reddy conveyed his thoughts to, in turn apprised Sonia, who then had second thoughts. This is because a win for the Congress in Nagarjunasagar would reverse the trends for the party which has continually been sliding down a slippery slope. 

Having realised that winning the Nagarjunasagar byelection is crucial, Sonia gave Tagore a dressing down for suggesting that Jeevan Reddy be appointed TPCC chief without taking all factors into account, especially the Nagarjunasagar bypoll. She sought to know why he had acted in haste without apprising her, knowing fully well that it might stir a hornet’s nest in the PCC. She wanted to know whether Tagore had considered the kind of fallout it might trigger. 

Tagore, according to sources, was instructed to submit another report on the present situation, including the Nagarjunasagar bypoll, which means that naming a new president has been put on the back-burner once again as such an action would create more problems at a critical time, rather than solving any. The situation is back to square one again and Congress leaders can continue the game they have been playing — of trying to be in the good books of the party president to get the coveted position.