Email
Print
ShareHyderabad: The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Andhra Pradesh will be meeting here tomorrow, its first sitting since the death of then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash on September 2.
Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, law minister and AICC General Secretary in charge of Andhra affairs M Veerappa Moily will attend the CLP meet as observers, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president D Srinivas said today.
Srinivas will preside over the meeting, in which members of Parliament, Legislative Assembly and Council will participate.
Though the PCC chief did not spell out the agenda of the CLP meet, it is likely that a new leader will be elected. The CLP will first pay homage to Rajasekhara Reddy and then take up other business, party sources said.
Though K Rosaiah has been continuing as chief minister since September 3, he was not formally elected the CLP leader. Soon after YSR's death, a section of the Congress legislators demanded that his son and Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy be made the CLP leader, succeeding his father.
The Congress high command, however, brushed this demand aside and constantly maintained that the CLP meeting would be convened at an appropriate time.
With the state Legislature slated to meet in the second week of December for the winter session, it has become imperative for the CLP to formally elect its new leader.
Though there are other contenders like Panchayat Raj minister Botsa Satyanarayana for the CLP leader's post, the Congress high command is expected to vote in favour of chief minister Rosaiah, the sources said.
"The CLP meeting and the election of the leader will conclusively put to rest the succession issue," a senior state Congress leader said.
