Hyderabad: Loyalists who stood by the Congress through its lean years are set to be rewarded with key roles in the party’s revamped Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC). AICC Telangana in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan is said to have categorised party functionaries into three groups – original Congress members, those who joined between 2018 and 2023, and recent entrants after the party’s victory in December 2023.
In the restructuring process now underway under TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud, priority is being given to the old guard. Senior leaders who remained with the party through thick and thin are likely to corner most of the prominent organisational posts.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Goud held crucial talks in Delhi on Sunday night with AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal. Apart from finalising the PCC executive, they discussed the long-pending Cabinet expansion.
The high command has been urged to fast-track the appointments, with sources indicating that the party is keen on balancing organisational loyalty with social representation. Discussions also touched upon how to accommodate leaders aspiring for ministerial and party roles without triggering dissent.
In the first wave of announcements, the Congress is likely to unveil only working presidents, vice presidents, and general secretaries. Of the working president posts, four or five are expected, with one MLA and one MP in the mix. The positions will be distributed across OC, SC, ST, BC, and minority communities to ensure inclusivity.
Since 2017, the AICC has maintained detailed records of active district-level leaders, and district in-charges have submitted their recommendations. Senior Congressmen say the leadership has already formed a clear idea of who gets what. Each key post is being considered with a shortlist of three names, and no two individuals from the same community will be given the same designation.
On the Cabinet front, the Congress is walking a tightrope. Multiple leaders from the same caste groups are jostling for berths, especially from the SC and BC categories. Madiga legislators have urged Revanth Reddy to give their community due recognition in the Cabinet, citing their population strength and the state’s pioneering move to implement SC categorisation.
The high command is considering allotting one berth each to BCs, SCs, OCs, and minorities. But with intense lobbying within each group, the challenge is identifying candidates who can be accommodated without stoking factional tensions.
