MOILY AS COORDINATION COMMITTEE CHIEF OPPOSED - T CONG LEADERS PITCH FOR DS AS PANEL CHIEF

Hyderabad: Furious Telangana Congress leaders on Saturday urged Sonia Gandhi to replace Veerappa Moily as the chairman of the coordination committee with PCC president D Srinivas. The leaders argued that the committee, which was announced on Friday, was heavily biased as leaders from the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions dominated it. Around 40 leaders from the region, including ministers, MLAs and MLCs, met at the residence of CWC member K Kesava Rao to oppose the constitution of the committee against the normal practice. Taking strong objection to Moily usurping the position of PCC president , the leaders dashed off a letter to Sonia seeking corrective measure immediately. They said the appointment of Moily would be viewed as an insult to Telangana as it was full of the advocates of integrated state.

Senior leader R Damodar Reddy is said to have raised the topic and there was almost unanimity on the subject. In normal practice, a coordination panel is always headed by PCC chief and CM is the vice chairman , said a senior leader. There is no members for AICC general secretary on the committee. So, Moily is not supposed to head this. This is nothing but weakening the office of PCC president, he remarked. They also took objection to appointing all strong upper caste leaders from the Seemandhra region.

Rosaiah is a known integrationist. Now, RS member K V P Ramachandra Rao, Lok Sabha members K S Rao and Y S Jagan also are opposed to Telangana. With the inclusion of Moily, who is also a known integrationist, there is an imbalance in the panel and this should be corrected by reconstitution, the members felt. As the AICC in charge of AP affairs, Moily should oversee the matter and not directly run the show, they felt. Later, talking to media, minister D Sridhar Babu and Damodar Reddy said the right thing was to appoint Srinivas as the chairman of the committee. Domadar Reddy expressed displeasure over Rosaiahs statement dubbing himself as an integrationist.
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