TS Congress roots for Kharge or Shinde as AICC president

Hyderabad: Telangana Congress leaders are anxious over the working committee meeting that would be held on Saturday at Delhi to settle the question of the new president of the party.

The senior leaders of the State party are eager to know who would become the next president of the party. They have been speculating on the effects that would take place with the change of guard.

According to party leaders, former Union Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, former leader of Congress Parliamentary Party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge and former Union Minister Mukul Wasnik are the front runners for the post.

At the same time, they are not rejecting the possibility of considering the names like Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, leader from Madhya Pradesh Jyothirditya Scindia, and Rajasthan leader Sachin Pilot for the post of the president.

Most of the Telangana leaders are wishing that either Mallikarjuna Kharge or Sushil Kumar Shinde become the president as their leadership would auger well for the party in the State since they have good knowledge about the TS unit.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy said that either Kharge or Shinde would be able to handle the Telangana Congress effectively. They were highly acceptable for the State party.

Party leaders said as Sushil Kumar Shinde has worked as Governor in the erstwhile combined Andhra Pradesh for five years, he has good knowledge of Telangana Congress. Several leaders of the State have good acquaintance with him.

Mallikarjuna Kharge who hails from neighbouring Karnataka is also known well to the State party leaders. Kharge has good knowledge of strengths and weaknesses of State leaders. This would allow these two leaders to make better decisions with regard to Telangana Congress.

A leader other than these two would have to depend on others to make decisions on Telangana which may go awry if proper feedback was not given.

At the same time most of the leaders of the Telangana Congress have no close relations with the CWC members and the seniors of AICC other than V Hanumantha Rao.

On the other hand, restiveness is growing among the Telangana Congress leaders as the party high command has been taking lot of time to settle the issue of party presidentship.

Former AICC president Rahul Gandhi announced his resignation to the party soon after the announcement of results of Parliament elections in May 23. Since then more than 70 days passed without the election of new president.

The Congress leaders have said that the inordinate delay in taking up the election of new president has been disappointing.

Already the morale of the party leaders and cadre was dented due to the defeat in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

They said that the AICC should settle the issue of new president so that the party could resume its activities at the earliest. They said that more delay would discourage the State unit and would lead to unnecessary consequences.