Power struggle in Telugu Desam to fore

Vijayawada: Power struggle in the Telugu Desam high rank leadership has reached its peak, and AP Bhawan, New Delhi, has witnessed it in the recent past. The chamber located in AP Bhawan exclusively for the official representative of the state government at New Delhi has been evacuated following the reported instructions from the Union minister Sujana Chowdary, and it was allotted to senior bureaucrat Rajat Bhargava, who was repatriated from the Ministry of Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation to the state cadre on September 2 last year.

Prior to that, the AP Bhawan officials have removed the name plate of Kambhampati Rammohan Rao following the reported instructions from the Mr Sujana Chowdary, sources close to the minister told this correspondent. It is learnt that ground is being prepared to deploy 20-point programme committee chairman Y. Srinivas Sesha Saibabu as the official representative of the state government.

In fact, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved repatriation of Mr Bhargava, a 1990 batch IAS officer, to his parent cadre with immediate effect on September 2, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training has stated, without giving any reason. Later, he was appointed as special commissioner to the GoAP at AP Bhawan in New Delhi. Since it became difficult to show a posting to Mr Rajat Bhargava immediately after his repatriation, the state government has taken this decision, which in other way has fulfilled the wish of Mr Sujana Chowdary. In fact, Mr Sujana has reportedly informed the TD national president and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu that he was suffocated with the presence of Mr Rammohan Rao, by stating that in New Delhi, he doesn’t want two power centres.

To bring in better coordination between the state and Union governments, the Chief Minister has finally decided to not to extend the tenure of Mr Rammohan Rao and entrusted the responsibility of liaisoning to Mr Sujana Chowdary, sources said. That’s how, Mr Chowdary has curtailed the entry of Mr Rammohan Rao into the AP Bhawan and for that matter, into the New Delhi’s TD politics, sources added.