Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Move to replace APCC chief

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 26 . After changing the Maharashtra PCC chief and the BRCC chief, Murli Deora, the AICC has now begun to look for a replacement for the party chief in Andhra Pradesh, M. Satyanarayana Rao.

The move is in line with the plan to tone up the Congress units, ahead of the 2004 general elections.

Mr. Rao will soon complete three years as the APCC chief, and the mood appears to be to bring in an early replacement so that the new PCC chief has time to settle in and prepare the party for the electoral challenges ahead.

The AICC leadership is conscious of the threat posed by the TDP-BJP combine in the State and is keen on getting the social and regional balance right to checkmate its opponents. Though the exercise is still in its nascent stages, the party is hoping to replace Mr. Rao with a leader belonging to the Other Backward Classes, preferably from the Telengana region.

The search is apparently on for a leader who will be able to function as a team leader. Prominent among the names being mentioned are K. Rosaiah, P. Shiv Shankar and M. Hanumantha Rao.

Another area on which the poll managers are concentrating is the need to wean the minorities away from the Telugu Desam Party.

The minorities account for about 12 per cent of the votes in the State, and the Congress believes that if its succeeds in exposing the TDP's "hypocrisy" — claiming that it was maintaining a distance from the BJP yet aligning with it electorally — its job would be done.

Kasu Krishna Reddy, former MP, today called on the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi and submitted a note on the unity moves initiated by some senior leaders in the State. The attempt is to persuade all party workers to close ranks.

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