By all indications, the Congress party’s central leadership seem to be leaning heavily towards making a Backward Classes leader as the next Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief, in an effort to strike a caste balance as incumbent Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is an OC (other castes) leader.
After in-depth consultations that All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief Mallikarjun Kharge and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had with Chief Minister A.Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, the possibility of a BC leader being appointed as TPCC president has brightened.
All the three leaders strongly felt the need to maintain a strategic caste balance in its leadership. With a powerful OC leader as the Chief Minister and equally influential SC leader, Mr. Bhatti, as the Deputy Chief Minister, the party, it appears, has been veering towards a BC leader as the party State chief.
Race between Mahesh Goud, Madhu Yaskhi Goud
The race has narrowed down between TPCC working president Bomma Mahesh Kumar Goud and former Nizamabad MP Madhu Yaskhi Goud. Both belong to the influential Goud community, which has a sizeable presence in Telangana and is counted among the top five BC castes that are sought after by the mainline political parties.
Both Mr. Mahesh Goud and Mr. Madhu Yaskhi have carved a niche for themselves in terms of the party affairs. While the TPCC working chief has been with the party for over three decades and risen from the ranks of NSUI to the present position, Mr. Madhu Yaskhi, was among hardcore statehood protagonist MPs from the State.
The two-time MP, along with other Lok Sabha members from Telangana, had worked overtime to pressure the AICC leadership and the UPA government to concede the demand for a separate State of Telangana. His rapport with the Central leadership, particularly the Gandhi family, is also considered a plus point.
If we take a historical context of the leadership, be it in united A.P. or Telangana, the high command has always preferred a leader from the BC or SC/ST community if an OC leader was the Chief Minister.
Caste balance since 1992
Party leaders point out that in the early 1990s, when M.Channa Reddy and N. Janardhan Reddy were the Chief Minister, the party chose to appoint V. Hanumantha Rao and Majji Tulasidas as the party chief.
Similarly, when Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy became the CM in 2004, by that time senior leader D. Srinivas from the powerful Munnuru Kapu community was the PCC chief. Mr. Srinivas went on to serve a second term and post the death of Mr. Rajasekhara Reddy in a chopper crash, during the term of K. Rosaiah and N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, senior BC leaders Botcha Satyanarayana and Ponnala Lakshmaiah were the PCC chief.
A top TPCC functionary pointed out that with the fortunes of the TDP taking a toll after bifurcation, the BC community support had been divided between the Bharat Rashtra Samiti and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Very few BC communities were sailing with the Congress but that impression changed in 2023 Assembly elections and this year’s Parliament elections. The BJP too had encouraged BC leaders in a big way into the party fold and they reaped the benefits in the recent elections.
