AICC announces appeasement panels for TPCC, snubs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy

NEW DELHi: In what looked more like an appeasement drive ahead of crucial elections in 2023, the All India Congress Committee on Saturday announced its revamped committees for Telangana. In the same breath, the party high command also snubbed its Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy by excluding him from all the committees, lists of which were released here.

As widely anticipated, the lists of TPCC Executive Committee, the all-crucial Political Affair Committee and the DCC presidents, vice-presidents and general secretaries clearly bore the signature of TPCC President Revanth Reddy and his preferences in gearing up the party for the forthcoming general elections. The cold-shoulder given to Venkat Reddy being perhaps the only exception, the other committees reflected the party's and Revanth Reddy's conciliatory and careful approach to keep everyone in good humour.

Most noticeable of them was the choice of the AICC and the TPCC chief to appoint as many as 24 vice-presidents and a staggering 84 general secretaries for the DCCs. The party appears to be fine with the head-heavy look for its DCCs as it desperately looks for ways to strengthen its base at the grass-rootes and revive the party to past glory in Telangana.

And the party appears to have taken abundant precaution to ensure that no leader worth his name was rubbed on the wrong side in determining the composition of the committees. The idea, as it became evident from the lists, was to accommodate as many as it can and pre-empt possible dissidence which can really upset its applecart in the state.

The new Pradesh Executive Committee, headed by Revanth Reddy by virtue of being the TPCC President, consists of 23 members. Besides the TPCC chief, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, V Hanumantha Rao, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, K Jana Reddy, T Jeevan Reddy, Dr J Geeta Reddy, Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Damodar C Raja Narasimha, Renuka Chowdhury, P Balram Naik, Madhu Yashki Goud, D Sridhar Babu, Dr G Chinna Reddy, Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy, S A Sampath Kumar, Podduturi Sudharshan Reddy, R Damodar Reddy, Sambhani Chandrasekar, Dr Nagam Janardhan Reddy, Gaddam Prasad Kumar and C Ramachandra Reddy are the other members on the panel.

Similarly, the AICC announced the TPCC's Political Affairs Committee with its state incharge Manickam Tagore as its chairman. Continuing with the old tradition, it also made the four working presidents of the TPCC as special invitees of the panel. A Revanth Reddy, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, V Hanumantha Rao, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, K Jana Reddy, T Jeevan Reddy, Dr J Geeta Reddy, Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Damodar C Raja Narasimha, Renuka Chowdhury, P Balram Naik, Madhu Yashki Goud, Chinna Reddy, Dridhar Babu, Vamsi Chand Reddy and Sampath Kumar are those named in this committee.

Four working presidents who would be participating as special invitees of the committee are Mohammed Azharuddin, Anjan Kumar Yadav, Jagga Reddy and Mahesh Kumar Goud.

The snub to Komatireddy Venkat Reddy has largely come on predicted lines in the aftermath of his younger brother Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy ditching the party and causing the by-election to the Munugode Assembly seat after joining the BJP. Venkat Reddy's frosty relations with Revanth Reddy and the speculation that he too would head to the BJP sooner or later also appeared to have hastened the high command's decision to sideline him.

The TPCC disciplinary action committee has already issued a show-cause notice to the Bhongir MP for his alleged anti-party activities.