HYDERABAD: Following the Congress’s crushing defeat in the Munugode bypol, where its candidate Palvai Sravanthi Reddy lost the deposit, and with senior party leaders such as former minister Marri Shashidar Reddy exiting the party
after a long tenure, the party's central high-command is focusing solely on
Telangana and considering a restructure at the organisational level, which may include clipping the wings of PCC president A. Revanth Reddy and removal of AICC (Telangana) incharge Manickam Tagore.
According to party sources, despite Revanth's camp claiming that Tagore
voluntarily has decided to stepped down as state Incharge, the party high
command wants him to step down after more than two years at the helm of Telangana affairs, and Congress party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi will most likely be monitoring the Telangana PCC's functioning.
The rehauled PCC will have new vice-presidents, general secretaries, and possibly an executive committee, as well as new DCC presidents, in addition to existing functionaries. The PCC could be expanded as part of the overhaul to accommodate 100 more leaders as party functionaries, said a senior leader. The massive overhaul of the party's organisational structure follows complaints from several quarters within the party urging the party's high command to review the party's poor performance in Telangana following several recent debacles. "There is talk in Delhi that he (Tagore) asked Kharge (AICC president) to relieve him, but given the political situation in the state, it is certain that he was asked to resign. The main reason is a string of bypoll losses in Telangana, culminating with Munugode," a senior official told Deccan Chronicle.
The party also reportedly took the resignation of Marri Shashidhar Reddy, son of late Marri Channa Reddy, former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, seriously after he wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi on November 22 explaining his reasons for resigning. Shashidhar Reddy, who had been a loyal Congressman and headed a 'Congress Loyalists Forum' of Telangana Congress leaders, brought to Sonia Gandhi's attention the poor functioning of AICC in-charges and PCC presidents in Telangana, as well as the growing influence of money in party affairs, and the party's failure to effectively take on the ruling TRS. Apart from the "poor functioning of PCC", Revanth's selective reaction to rivals did not go down well within the party. When seniors attempted to contact Revanth about important political issues, such as TRS MLC K. Kavitha's alleged involvement in the Delhi liquor scam, he did not respond aggressively enough.
