Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday appointed three AICC secretaries for Telangana, replacing present incumbent Satish Jharkiholi.
The three new appointees - N.S. Bose Raju and Saleem Ahmed (both from Karnataka) and Sreenivasan Krishnan from Kerala, will be working under AICC incharge Ram Chandra Khuntia, said party General Secretary Ashok Gehlot in a statement.
“The party appreciates the hard work and contribution of Satish Jharkiholi, who will be stepping down from his responsibility as Secretary AICC, Telangana,” the statement read.
The Congress is the chief opposition party in the state, winning the most number of legislator seats after the TRS, in the 2014 election.
The move by Rahul Gandhi also comes at a time when the state unit of the party is witnessing an internal rift.
Last week, a group of senior leaders including TPCC working president Bhatti Vikramarka, Revanth Reddy, DK Aruna, expelled MLA Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, and former minister Sridhar Babu travelled to New Delhi to wish Rahul Gandhi on his birthday, but also had a word with Ashok Gehlot.
The party leaders pointed out that they were upset with the way in which Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief Uttam Kumar Reddy functioned and rued that they were not consulted before he took his decisions.
They also reportedly complained against RC Khuntia and Congress Legislature Party leader K Jana Reddy.
However, Khuntia denied the allegations, telling reporters, "No one complained against anyone in the party to Rahul Gandhi. It was a brief meeting wherein Rahulji was wished on his birthday."
This also comes days after the Congress made former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the General Secretary in charge of residual Andhra Pradesh.
Chandy’s biggest worry now is how to revive the fortunes of his party in Andhra Pradesh as he gets ready to visit every nook and corner of the state, with the message that the good old Congress party is back.
The challenge before Chandy at present is that the Congress has just a two percent vote share there and the two leading parties -- the ruling party, Telugu Desam Party and the principal opposition party, YSR Congress party, do not have the best of relations with the Congress party.
IANS inputs