With the Presidential election less than a month away and the Congress central leadership in New Delhi preoccupied, a review of the party’s poor performance in the byelections in the state would be done only after the new occupant of the Rashtrapati Bhavan is decided, it is learnt.
“There is likelihood that the President would be elected unanimously, which would be known within 10 days. If that happens, the party’s central leadership would review the bypoll performance, as well as make changes in the state leadership, afterward,” a state minister said on Wednesday on condition of anonymity. The minister, who was part of a team comprising a few ministers from the N. Kiran Kumar Reddy Cabinet and PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana were in New Delhi for the last two days, said, “We were clearly told by the central leadership that any review of the bypoll results will be taken up only after the Presidential election.”
“The (high command) leaders are all busy mustering support for Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature, as he will file his nomination on June 28,” the minister told this newspaper. But, striking a note of discontent, senior Congress MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao demanded an overhaul of the state Congress leadership, including some Cabinet members, and holding them accountable for the poor show in the bypolls.
“How can we tolerate corruption of ministers? Where is the accountability for their poor show in the bypolls?” he said in Delhi. Meanwhile, the AICC has asked the CM, the PCC chief and MPs from AP to be present in Delhi for proposing or seconding the different sets of Mukherjee’s nomination papers.