Hyderabad: Congress MLC and senior leader Mahesh Kumar Goud has been appointed as the new Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president. Goud will be replacing chief minister Revanth Reddy who has been holding the top TPCC post as well. The development was expected, as the post was likely to go to a Backward Classes (BC) leader from the party.
The change was due given that as the TPCC president is usually changed if the person becomes the chief minister in a state. Mahesh Kumar Goud, who did not contest in the 2023 Assembly election, was eventually made an MLC in the party. A senior leader from Telangaa, he is also known to be on good terms with chief minister Revanth Reddy, and also with other leaders like irrigation minister N Uttar Kumar Reddy.
Under the new TPCC president, the Congress in Telangana is expected to now begin organisational work which had slowed down as party leaders took up government roles. In the run up to the 2023 Assembly elections, while Reddy’s still got a higher share of seats than their population percentage, there was also a clamour from BC leaders to give them more seats as the community makes up over 50% of Telangana’s population.
Another senior leader from Telangana whose name was in the fray is ex-Nizamabad MP Madhu Yakshi Goud, who is also a BC leader. Mahesh Kumar Goud was supposed to contest from the Nizamabad (urban) seat in the 2023 state polls, but the seat was eventually was given to ex-Congress minister Shabbir Ali, who eventually lost the seat.
Previous Congress chiefs in Telangana
After Telangana was formed in 2014, the Congress first appointed Huzurnagar MLA and senior leader N Uttam Reddy as the state party chief, who held on to the position until 2021. Under Uttam, the Congress performed very poorly, as it lost two state elections in 2014 and 2018, and even lost important by-polls during that time to the then ruling BRS.
However, the grand old party managed to win three Lok Sabha seats out of 17 in Telangana during the 2019 polls. In the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections, the Congress won 64 out of 119 seats.
Revanth Reddy, who was appointed as the TPCC working president in 2018 initially after joining the Congress, was finally made the TPCC president in spite of opposition from within the party. His critics have however been silenced as he managed to finally pull-off a victory for the Congress. The party also won eight Parliamentary in the Lok Sabha polls this year.
