As the Congress national leadership issued a new set of guidelines for assessing the selection criteria of district presidents in Telangana, the most notable directive has been to avoid reappointing existing district presidents. This move has sent a clear message that the party intends to infuse new energy into its fatigued cadre.
According to party leaders, out of the 40 district units of the Congress, seven positions are currently vacant. While all 33 existing district presidents are set to be replaced, the new appointees will reportedly be those with no familial ties to sitting legislators or ministers. A senior Congress leader said, “How effectively these guidelines will be implemented remains to be seen. If the leadership adheres to them, it would be a positive step. However, an additional clause should be added that legislators themselves should be barred from holding such crucial organisational posts, as they may not be able to do justice to both responsibilities.”
Leaders say over 50 per cent of district presidents have been in the position for a long time, some even for 10 years. "Therefore, this specific instruction was given that no district president should be repeated. This move will give space to young generation in the state."
As each district has recently been assigned an AICC observer, who has been instructed to complete the assessment process within a week to ten days, with the assistance of local leaders serving as state observers.
However, in Telangana, around four months ago, two state-level observers were already appointed for each district and tasked with collecting feedback from the booth-level to the top leadership. These observers reportedly worked diligently and submitted detailed reports covering all districts. However, when the AICC appointed an observer for each district, new state unit observers were appointed with them. Despite their familiarity with the local dynamics and their groundwork, according to a senior AICC leader, they were replaced by the leadership with a new set of observers to conduct the survey in districts. Party insiders believe this abrupt replacement reflects a serious mismanagement in the organisational process.
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Former MLA and Telangana Congress general secretary, Professor Venkat Swami, says, "The change is very good. We will have a fresh ecosystem. But this is a clear case of organisational mismanagement. There has been no coordination between the old observers and the newly appointed ones, and what happened to the reports of old observers? We don't know. It reflects a serious lapse in planning and execution. Instead of replacing the earlier observers, the leadership could have simply added two more members to strengthen the process — that would have made the work more effective and smooth."
He also added, "What has happened instead is the complete disregard for two months of hard work by the earlier observers, who had walked from village to village to gather grassroots feedback. Their effort, time, and even personal expenditure have gone unacknowledged." |
