New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday brought in Maharashtra veteran Manikrao Thakre as AICC in charge of Telangana to curb infighting in the poll-bound state. Thakre will replace existing Telangana in charge Manickam Tagore, who has been moved to Goa as AICC in charge.
Tagore will replace existing Goa in charge Dinesh Gundo Rao, who will continue to remain in charge of Tamil Nadu. Both Goa and Telangana had become problematic states for the grand old party forcing the new president Mallikarjun Kharge to opt for some tough measures. According to AICC general secretary KC Venugopal, the changes will come into force immediately.
According to sources, the change of guard in Telangana has come following the recommendations of veteran Digvijay Singh, who had visited the southern state recently. The Congress president was worried over the continuing infighting in the Telangana unit with several senior leaders resigning in protest against the working style of state unit chief Revanth Reddy.
Reddy, a former TDP leader, had been given the key post by Rahul Gandhi, who wants the Congress to win the coming assembly polls, scheduled later this year. The party had lost the Munugode assembly by poll in November 2022. The seat was won by Congress in 2018 by Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, who resigned from the party, joined the BJP and fought the by poll on a saffron party ticket.
Both Manickam Tagore and Revanth Reddy, who are Lok Sabha members, had placed heavy bets on the Munugode seat. The Congress, which came third in the bypoll, later blamed the ruling TRS money power for the loss. According to party insiders, Manikrao Thakre, a former Maharashtra unit chief is expected to unify Telangana party leaders and prepare the state unit for the coming electoral battle in which Rahul Gandhi has vowed to defeat the TRS.
Rahul had said that the Congress would go solo in Telangana and would fight both the TRS and the BJP, which is trying to make inroads into the southern state. Recently, when the TRS floated its national avatar the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), the Congress said the TRS was actually playing the game of the BJP. Telangana is important for the Congress as the grand old party was responsible for its creation in 2014.
As far as Goa is concerned, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party in 2017 but the BJP quickly forged an alliance with the smaller parties and formed the government. The BJP was able to retain power in the 2022 assembly polls but that did not stop the saffron party from poaching eight out of the 11 Congress MLAs in September last year.
