It appears YSR Congress party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who has been trying hard to revamp his party’s organisation structure, has not been able to discard seniors, who had ruled the roost in the party when he was in power.
On Wednesday night, Jagan appointed several senior leaders as in-charges of the party in different regions in the state. But what he did was to redesignate them as zonal secretaries, rather than calling them regional coordinators.
It looks like having old wine in the new bottle, as the leaders are same except that their designations will change. Of course, their “zones” have been reshuffle. They have now been asked to coordinate the party programmes in their respective zones, instead of regions.
“However, the only difference is that these zonal secretaries will not have enormous powers which they used to wield in the past. The district party presidents will continue to be stronger than the zonal secretaries, who will only have to play the role of coordinators,” a party source said.
On Thursday, Jagan called for a meeting of all party seniors. It would be attended by district party presidents, leaders of affiliated organisations and zonal secretaries.
“He will discuss various issues including constitution of full-fledged party executive committees at all levels and appointment of constituency in-charges,” sources said.
As far as the new zonal secretaries are concerned, senior party general secretary and Rajya Sabha member V Vijay Sai Reddy, who had initially been holding the fort in north coastal Andhra region but was later shifted to central Andhra districts of Guntur, Prakasam and Bapatla, will now take care of the party affairs in the combined districts of Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam.
There is no clarity on whether he would handle Vizianagaram district party activities as well. During his earlier stint as regional coordinator, Sai Reddy had faced several allegations of indulging in land settlements, including Daspalla lands and Hayagriva lands.
But that was the time when Jagan was in power. Now that the TDP has gained control over Vizag, Sai Reddy will have to look after only the party affairs.
Another senior leader and Rajya Sabha member Y V Subba Reddy, who was handling the party activities in Visakhapatnam and other north-Andhra district till the last elections, has now been made zonal secretary for combined Kadapa, Anantapur and Kurnool districts.
While veteran leader and former minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy will be the zonal secretary for the combined districts of Chittoor and Nellore, his son and MP P Mithun Reddy will handle the party affairs in combined Guntur and Prakasam districts.
While former minister and MLC Botsa Satyanarayana has been entrusted with the responsibilities of the party in combined East and West Godavari districts, another former MP Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy will look after combined Krishna district, a party statement said.