After a long gap of nearly eight months, the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh, which has virtually gone defunct, has finally got a chief.
All India Congress Committee on Thursday appointed senior leader and former minister in the combined Andhra Pradesh Sake Sailajanath as the president of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC). The orders were issued by AICC general secretary K C Venugopal in the evening.
Apart from Sailajanth, two other senior leaders N Tulasi Reddy and Shaik Mastan Vali were appointed as APCC working presidents.
The Congress party in Andhra Pradesh has been headless since the resignation of former PCC chief N Raghuveera Reddy on May 19, soon after the announcement of exit polls.
The party, which paid heavy penalty for dividing the combined Andhra Pradesh and could not win even a single assembly seat in 2014 elections, did not recover later.
It was rejected outright once again by the people in 2019 elections and the party could not win vote share even to match NOTA.
Since then, there had been no takers for the PCC chief post. Raghuveera took a break from politics and went into oblivion and there are no meetings of the PCC anywhere.
Though the high command requested seniors like former chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, six-time MP Chinta Mohan and former Union minister M M Pallam Raju, but nobody was interested to take up the job.
Now, it has forced Sailajanath to accept the post. A Dalit leader from Singanamala constituency in Anantapur district, Sailajanath enjoys some reputation, as he had served as government whip during the Y S Rajasekhar Reddy government and was a minister in Kiran Kumar Reddy cabinet.
May be, the high command thought Sailajanath can breathe some life into the otherwise dead party, but one doubts whether it is possible.
The party has no leaders or cadre and it is extremely difficult for Sailajanath to revive the Congress. It is like flogging the dead horse!