The revolt by the Congress party seniors in Telangana has paid off, at least partially, as the party high command shunted out AICC in-charge of Telangana affairs Manickam Tagore from the post.
The high command shifted Tagore to a smaller state like Goa and in his place, appointed Manikrao Thakre, president of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee as in-charge of Telangana.
“Congress President has appointed Manikrao Thakre as AICC in-charge of Telangana, with immediate effect,” Congress General Secretary, Organisation, K C Venugopal said in a communique.
Tagore will replace Dinesh Gundu Rao as Goa in charge, while the latter will continue as in charge of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the communique added.
However, the AICC high command ignored the crucial demand of the Telangana Congress seniors for replacement of A Revanth Reddy as the PCC chief. At least for now, Revanth will remain the PCC chief, maybe till the next elections.
Despite these changes, the infighting in the Telangana Congress continued on Wednesday, as several seniors stayed away from the important PCC programme ‘Hath Se Hath Jodo Abhiyan’.
Despite the party leadership’s order, senior leaders N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Madhu Yashki Goud, V Hanumantha Rao, D Sridhar Babu, T Jagga Reddy, Damodara Rajanarsimha, Maheshwar Reddy, K Jana Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, K Geetha Reddy, P Sudarshan Reddy, Mohammad Azharuddin, MLA Podem Veeraiah and AICC Secretary Vamsi Chander Reddy did not turn up for the training programme.
Among those labeled as anti-Revanth Reddy, only CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka and veteran leader M Kodanda Reddy attended the meeting.
Interestingly, Congress chief Mallikarjuna Kharge had talked to these senior leaders on Tuesday and asked them to attend the training classes. But despite Kharge’s direction, the seniors decided to stay away from the training programme.
It is learnt that AICC in-charge secretary NS Bosu Raju spoke to the dissident leaders and asked them to cooperate with Revanth Reddy.
Last month, too, the same group of senior leaders protested against the various party posts given to leaders who joined Congress from TDP.
The party high command had to rush senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh to Hyderabad to resolve the infighting. But apparently, the situation is yet to change.