Congress meet on Saturday, change of guard in the offing in Telangana

HYDERABAD: The Congress high command has called for a meeting of all the AICC general secretaries, AICC secretaries, PCC presidents and CLP leaders to New Delhi to discuss important political issues on November 16.
AICC general Secretary RC Khuntia, TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and three AICC secretaries deputed to Telangana including Bose Raju, Saleem Ahmed and Srinivasan will fly to New Delhi to represent the Congress party from Telangana.
A senior AICC leader said the meeting is primarily aimed at discussing the political situation in respective states and working out strategies to be adopted at the national level to go to the public against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government’s failure on economic front, the Ayodhya issue, SPG security cover being withdrawn and the saffron party’s proposed uniform civil code.
However, the AICC leader did not rule out the possibility of Uttam Kumar Reddy and Bhatti Vikramarka getting a one-to-one meeting with Sonia Gandhi after the meeting of the top functionaries of the party. Uttam Kumar Reddy has on a plethora of occasions expressed his willingness to step down as TPCC chief, once after Congress loss in the December 2018 assembly polls, followed by Lok Sabha elections and his wife Padmavathi Reddy’s defeat in Huzurnagar Assembly bypoll, a constituency won by Uttam three times in a row in 2009, 2014 and 2018.
The November 16 meeting in New Delhi and the invite to PCC chief and CLP leader Bhatti has renewed the expectations among the front-runners in race for the post of the president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee that the party high command may go for a change of leadership in the state after the municipal elections. “A change of guard is definitely in the offing in Telangana Congress. It is long overdue. The AICC has already conducted a survey and short-listed five candidates to replace Uttam Kumar Reddy,” said a senior leader.