Jagan entrusts party jobs to disgruntled legislators

Amaravati, April 19 : YSR Congress president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday appointed some former ministers as party regional coordinators and district presidents to stem the growing discontent.

Some sulking MLAs, who rebelled upon being denied a berth in the recent state Cabinet reconstitution, were also made the party president of new districts, in an exercise aimed at placating the dissenters.

YSRC general secretary and government advisor S R K Reddy announced the appointments on Tuesday night. Incidentally, Reddy will be a (super) coordinator over all the regional coordinators and the district party presidents.

He will also be one of the two coordinators, along with Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath, for Kurnool and Nandyal districts that have 14 Assembly segments under them.

Former Energy Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, who was the first to raise a dissenting voice over the denial of a second term in the Cabinet, has been appointed as the YSRC regional coordinator for SPS Nellore, Prakasam and Bapatla districts with 22 Assembly segments under them.

Former Home Minister M Sucharita, who initially threatened to resign from her MLA post protesting her removal from the Cabinet, has now been confined to the post of Guntur district party president.

Former minister K Srivenkateswara Rao will be the regional coordinator for Guntur and Palnadu districts with 14 Assembly constituencies. The party, in fact, said it would create a new State Development Board and appoint Rao as its head in the rank of a Cabinet minister.

As he was said to have refused to take up that position, the party decided to make him a regional coordinator, YSRC sources said.

Another former minister P Anil Kumar, who started dissident activity in his native SPS Nellore district, has been appointed regional coordinator for YSR and Tirupati districts (14 Assembly segments).

Other former ministers who were made district party presidents include M Sankara Narayana (Sri Satya Sai), Perni Venkataramaiah (Krishna), V Srinivasa Rao (NTR), A K K Srinivas (Eluru), Ch Sriranganatha Raju (West Godavari), K Kanna Babu (Kakinada), Pamula Pushpasri Vani (Parvatipuram Manyam), M Srinivasa Rao (Visakhapatnam) and Dharmana Krishna Das (Srikakulam).

G Srikanth Reddy, who was removed as Government Chief Whip, has been made president of YSRC Annamayya district unit.

Senior legislators Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy, Kapu Ramachandra Reddy, Katasani Rambhupal Reddy and Karanam Dharmasri, who too publicly expressed their displeasure over denial of a Cabinet berth, were made party presidents of Palnadu, Anantapuramu, Nandyala and Anakapalli districts respectively.

Rajya Sabha members V Prabhakar Reddy and M Venkata Ramana were appointed as district presidents of SPS Nellore and Bapatla respectively.

Senior Minister P R C Reddy has been made regional coordinator for Chittoor, Anantapuramu, Sri Satya Sai and Annamayya districts, spread over 27 Assembly constituencies.

Another senior minister Botsa Satyanarayana has been appointed regional coordinator for Parvatipuram Manyam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts that have 19 Assembly segments.

Jagan’s uncle and TTD Chairman Y V Subba Reddy will be the regional coordinator for Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitarama Raju districts (16 constituencies).

MPs P V Midhun Reddy and P S C Bose will be the regional coordinators for Eluru, West Godavari, East Godavari, Kakinada and Konaseema districts (35 segments).

Former legislator Marri Rajasekhar, for whom Jagan promised different posts in the past, has now been made party regional coordinator for NTR and Krishna districts (14 segments).