In the run-up to the next Assembly elections, Telangana Congress is bringing in radical organisational changes reorganising its existing district units and making them into 17 parliamentary constituencies for its administrative convenience.
As part of the plan being discussed and almost finalised, the party will abolish the present district committee setups and create new districts based on the 17 Parliamentary constituencies. Each of these new districts will be headed by a President while two working presidents will assist him or her focussing on organisational work and agitations against the government.
The new District Presidents will be of the stature of becoming Ministers if the party comes to power or at least strong enough to be an MLA. The working presidents too will be of similar calibre. One of them will purely focus on the agitations to be taken up as per the AICC or PCC decisions and the other will take care of the organisation.
The present setup of committees for 33 districts is creating a lot of confusion with every Assembly constituency crisscrossing several districts. In some cases, the borders of constituencies are spread over three to four districts and this has become a nightmare for coordination and entrusting responsibilities.
A senior leader wishing anonymity said that the plan also has the blessings of the party high command that is seeing this as a new radical approach to take on the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) that has created the new districts more for political convenience and considerations. Group politics within Congress can also be tackled easily with the reduction of administrative districts as smaller districts have created bigger groups, a senior leader argued.
The working presidents will spread their work further down identifying candidates to be appointed as Mandal presidents who will be chosen based on their work for the party. This will also ensure that the leadership is at multiple levels with identified responsibilities.
Party sources also see this as a major change after the high command identified political consultant Sunil Kanugolu was entrusted with the responsibility of Telangana affairs. Mr. Sunil has started working at the ground level to strengthen the organisation and prepare new strategies. He was associated with pollster Prashant Kishor for a long time and was a key member of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s 2014 campaign.
