Botsa Satyanarayana, the President of PCC has his eye on the 2014 general elections in which he is targeting to be the PCC President once again while losing his portfolio as state minister, Congress high command has different aspirations for him. Congress at the Center has decided to keep him away from the position of the president in PCC while using him as a counterweight to Kiran Kumar Reddy the Chief Minister by preventing him from losing the cabinet position. They also want to take in a Telangana leader for the position of a PCC president to succeed Botsa.
This is similar to Congress's strategy in Punjab to balance the power in the state. In early March Amarinder Singh was ousted from the position of PCC chief while the chance was given to a new MP from Gurudaspur and appointed more vice presidents for each area of the state.
Botsa has been asked to come to Delhi on March 29 to deal with the same exercise. They said that he would be informed that his time to move away from the post has come closer as there would be a new successor after 2014 polls. Since the Center has already decided that the leader would be from Telangana, the choices would be narrowed down to Ponnala Lakshmaiah, major industries icon J Geeta Reddy, MLC D Srinivas, deputy speaker Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and MP in Rajya Sabha, R Ananda Bhaskar.
Caste wise thoughts are also being considered in the party. Since a Reddy is the leader of the state as the CM, the Deputy CM is a Dalit, the PCC chief position is likely to be offered to a BC leader. Reshuffle scenario is most likely in April.
After Rahul Gandhi, the new vice president of the party announced that one member of the party cannot hold more than one post, Botsa's political career is likely to receive a big hit. He was also remonded a few weeks ago that he would also be included in the same rule. Botsa's behavior has been insinuating that he would leave the cabinet and hold on to the PCC chief position after his return from Delhi.
This however is not a possible scenario considering that the minister is to be sourced from Telangana and Kiran Kumar Reddy's poor relationship with Botsa after the ACB raids.
(AW- Anil)
