Transport Minister Botsa Satyanarayana has been named Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) chief. All India Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday approved the candidature of the Transport Minister, according to a press note issued by the government.
Internal
conflicts surrounded the appointment of a PCC chief, with the Congress High Command lobbying for Botsa Satyanarayana and Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy backing Civil Supplies Minister D Sridhar Babu.
The CM is reported to have opposed the candidature of Botsa by arguing that the latter would, as the PCC chief, create a power divide within the party.
Kiran Kumar Reddy and Botsa have, according to sources, rarely seen eye-to-eye. Their differences had reportedly deepened when the CM shuffled his cabinet and offered Botsa the transport ministry. Botsa resented that he was given what he perceived to be a lower portfolio than his former Minister For Heavy Industries berth.
It is also a known fact that Botsa had presented himself as a prospective CM after the demise of the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, but KKR was chosen over him.
V Hanumantha Rao, who was reportedly
in the fray for the position of PCC chief, expressed displeasure over the appointment of Botsa as the PCC chief, stating that an age-old tradition had been broken with this decision of the High Command.
Hanumantha explained that the CM and the PCC chief, at any given time in the past, always belonged to different regions of the state. But this time, both Kiran and Botsa belong to the Seemandhra region.
However, the appointment of a Seemandhra leader as the PCC chief seemed to have ruffled no feathers among Telangana leaders. Infact, as Botsa is an advocate of the bifurcation of the state, Telangana politicos reportedly see this as a favourable development that will culminate in a separate Telangana state.