AICC President Sonia Gandhi is expected to make it amply clear to both Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and APCC Chief Botcha Satyanarayana that the interest of the Congress party was supreme and they should strive hard in this direction rather than engage themselves in building up their personal images.
It might be mentioned here that the ongoing feud between the Chief Minister and the PCC President has rattled the High Command, necessitating a damage control exercise to save the ruling Congress from sinking further. As part of this exercise, both the CM and the PCC chief were summoned to New Delhi for talks.
Accordingly the Chief Minister and the PCC President reached Delhi this morning. Even the Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Damodar Rajnarasimha also arrived in Delhi though he was not invited for talks. There is no denial of the fact that the Deputy Chief Minister, of late, has been differing with the Chief Minister on many issues and hence considered as one among the detractors, besides Mr. Satyanarayana, of Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy within the cabinet. Thus his presence in the capital triggered off speculations that he would target the Chief Minister before the High Command.
The AICC General Secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad is in Jammu and Kashmir and expected to reach Delhi sometime in the evening. The Chief Minister, Deputy Chief and the PCC President are likely to have a preliminary round of talks with him before calling on the AICC President. Mr. Azad is likely to analyze the reasons behind the rot that has set in the State Congress and the root cause for the growing wedge between the CM and PCC Chief.
After gathering all the required inputs from Mr. Azad, the AICC President is expected to hold talks with all the three leaders. However it is not known whether she would hold discussions with all the three together or individually. But informed sources indicated that the Congress President, who has been seriously concerned over the goings on in the party affairs in Andhra Pradesh, which was also one of the reasons for the party’s debacle in the by-elections, might firmly and sternly make it clear that they have to mend their ways and work in unison to safeguard the interests of the party. If there is no change in them and they continue to pull each other’s legs, both would be mercilessly shown the door, the High Command is expected to sound the warning.
Another interesting development in the capital was that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi gave an audience to a former minister from Chittoor district, Mr. Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, a known Kiran baiter even as the CM and PCC Chief have been waiting to call on her. During his meeting with the AICC President, the former minister is understood to have impressed upon her the imperative need to replace Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy before the party gets buried in the state.
However informed sources in the Congress party feel that the High Command might not take any hasty step in disturbing both the CM and PCC President in view of the second round of by-elections for the 18 Assembly and one Lok Sabha seat expected sometime after May or June. Thus both the warring leaders are likely to get a breather for some more time. (NSS)