Race for TPCC chief post gathers pace

HYDERABAD: After a brief lull, the race for the post of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president has intensified again with aspirants camping in Delhi and lobbying hard with the party high command to secure the coveted post.

The issue has taken centre stage after reports emerging from Delhi that the party high command has initiated the process to select the new TPCC chief and it has shortlisted some names for the purpose before zeroing in on one.

Congress circles are abuzz that the party high command has shortlisted the names of Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Malkajgiri MP Anumula Revanth Reddy, MLC T. Jeevan Reddy and former minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu. An official announcement is expected anytime this week.

This prompted frontrunners to rush to Delhi and camp there to meet AICC leaders and make efforts to bag the coveted post. Leaders from Backward Classes led by former MP V. Hanumantha Rao are also making strong efforts to ensure a BC leader gets the post this time, alleging that leaders from the Reddy community had failed to take on the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) effectively since 2014 due to which the Congress was facing humiliating defeats in elections for the past seven years since the formation of the new state.

The appointment of the TPCC chief is getting delayed under one pretext or the other, testing the patience of Congress leaders and cadres since incumbent chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy offered to step down after owing responsibility to the party's worst performance in the Assembly elections in December 2018.

The party continued to suffer humiliating defeats at the hands of the TRS in rural and urban local bodies polls in 2019, bypolls for the Huzurnagar, Dubbak and Nagarjunasagar Assembly seats and the GHMC, Warangal and Khammam municipal corporation polls. Except for winning four Lok Sabha seats in 2019 elections, the party has had nothing to cheer.

Besides the TPCC chief post, there are expectations that four working presidents, vice-presidents and secretaries will also be appointed to pacify disgruntled leaders and to balance caste, region and religion equations in the party.

At present, there is a jumbo TPCC consisting of 11 vice-presidents and 31 general secretaries which was constituted in April 2016. The executive committee consists of 35 members while the TPCC coordination committee comprises 31. Besides the heads of all frontal organisations, 21 other leaders have been named as permanent invitees. However, there is a talk that the high command will prune the TPCC sharply this time.