Date:11/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/11/stories/2006101111470400.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

TDP revamps three district units

Special Correspondent

Three district unit presidents replaced

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam Party on Tuesday announced a shake-up replacing three district party presidents, as part of the efforts to check infighting, promote better coordination and rejuvenate the district level organisational set-up.

The decision to replace them was taken at the party's polit bureau meeting held under the chairmanship of the party president, N. Chandrababu Naidu. The Rajya Sabha MP, C. Ramachandraiah, Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy and Pulla Rao have been made presidents of Kadapa, Kurnool and Guntur district party units respectively.

Party affairs in districts, especially problematic ones like Kurnool and Guntur, where infighting was threatening to weaken the party, have been engaging the leadership for quite some time after the local body elections. The polit bureau wrestled with the issue for the last two sittings now before finalising compromise candidates to keep the two or three warring groups in these two districts happy.

Changes at 4 places

With the latest move, changes have been brought about in four districts. After the last polit bureau meeting a few days ago, the party had named Y. Ramana Murthy as the new president of Vizianagaram. Party sources said changes were planned in Mahbubnagar district too but put off as no senior leader was prepared to take charge of the district leadership.

But in the regular post Polit Bureau briefing, TDP leaders --K. Yerran Naidu, R. Chandrasekhara Reddy and K. Srinivasulu -- simply said the changes were part of the efforts to strengthen the party at the district level.They said the meeting decided to suspend partymen who were found guilty of resorting to anti- party activities during the recent local body elections. They include Leelavathi of Visakhapatnam, Borra Anjaneyulu Kamaraj of Pithapuram, Ramakoteswara Rao of Krishna and Venkataiah of Mahbubnagar.

Earlier stand

It was also decided to stick to its earlier stand of providing 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and Assemblies. It would present its views at the all-party meeting on delimitation of constituencies convened by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee at Delhi on October 13. At a separate press conference, TDP women's wing leader N. Rajakumari wanted a fair share of seats allotted to women in the Legislative Council.