Pallam Raju set to take charge of Andhra Pradesh Congress

KAKINADA/Vijayawada: Senior Congress leader and two-time Union minister M. Mangapati Pallam Raju will soon assume charge as the new president to AP Congress Committee.

While there has not been an official announcement from the AICC about the PCC chief appointment, speculation is rife that the party leadership has chosen him to head the AP Congress.

Hailing from Pitapuram in East Godavari, he successfully contested as an MP from Kakinada Lok Sabha segment in 2004 and 2009. He served as Union minister of state for HRD and also as Union minister for defence in Congress regime led by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

At a time when Congress is facing the worst political crisis with its presence generally being ignored in the recently held polls in the state, the new APPCC chief is having big task to restore the glory of the party in the state.

If the former Union minister Mr Pallam Raju is appointed as Pradesh Congress Committee president of Andhra Pradesh, he will become the fourth PCC president from East Godavari District as his grandfather M. Pallam Raju of Kakinada, Shaik Ismaeil and Samayam Veerraju of Samalkot worked as PCC presidents previously.

Mr Raju’s grandfather was a close associate of the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Mr Raju’s father M.S.S. Sanjeeva Rao worked as minister in late prime minister Indira Gandhi’s cabinet and he was an expert in the electronics sector.

Mr Raju is also an engineering graduate and he entered into politics after his father, the late Sanjeeva Rao fell ill. He won from the Kakinada Lok Sabha constituency in 1989 elections and was a close associate of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Later, he won again in 2004 and 2009 elections from Kakinada LS and took up ministerial posts in the then prime minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet. Mr Pallam Raju belongs to Kapu community and is known as a non-controversial politician and also for conducting constructive criticism on opposition parties.