Hyderabad, March 05: On a day when Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy claimed that the State will be back on track soon, the Congress leadership made the first political move in that direction – bringing in the shrewd Ghulam Nabi Azad as the new AICC incharge for party affairs in Andhra Pradesh.
The replacement of AICC general secretary Veerappa Moily, widely seen as having messed up both the Telangana agitation and the Jagan Mohan Reddy factor, was very much on the cards and the anointment of Azad is no surprise either as he is perhaps the only Congress leader capable of salvaging the party in a state quite familiar to him.
As part of the reshuffle, the central leadership dropped three veterans — G Venkataswamy, K Keshava Rao and V Kishore Chandra Deo — from the CWC. Kaka attacked none other than Sonia Gandhi while KK is believed to be the one pushing T Congressmen into an aggressive mode. Rao is reportedly going around telling everyone that he himself wanted to be dropped from the CWC as his active role in the T movement could be embarrassing for the party if he continued in the highest policy-making body. Deo’s ouster was inexplicable.
Two relatively harmless leaders and staunch loyalists — V Hanumanth Rao and P Sudhakar Reddy — have been retained in the AICC.
As one who has handled a more volatile Kashmir as its chief minister in the past, Azad is said to be of the view that his main task would be to deal with the sensitive T issue.
Delhi expects him to brief it on what would be the most suitable step for the Congress from a political perspective — dividing the state or keeping it united.
Interestingly, Azad was the AICC general secretary of the state in 2003-04 when he brought the Congress, TRS, CPI and CPM together and even organised bus yatras with leaders of all the parties.
YS Rajasekhara Reddy was said to have been averse to a tie-up with the TRS then too but it was Azad who insisted on it. In the end, the Congress combine decimated the Telugu Desam but Reddy and the TRS soon fell foul of each other and YSR even engineered a split in the separatist party.
Congressmen say the takeover of party affairs by Azad, known to operate with clinical precision, will also help it deal with the Jagan factor more effectively.
Moily was considered close to Jagan and YSR’s trusted aide, KVP Ramachandra Rao, a factor that inhibited the party’s thinking on how to deal with YSR’s son.
The mood, however, appears to be that Jagan issue could be dealt with leisurely as it is after all an “internal matter”. Azad’s priority is to cool down the T embers.
—Agencies