Podem Veeraiah Pushes for Cabinet Position
Bhadrachalam: Podem Veeraiah, the chairman of the Telangana Forest Development Corporation and a former Congress MLA, is making strong efforts to secure a place in the State Cabinet.
After the announcement of the MLC elections under the MLA quota, Veeraiah intensified his campaign to win an MLC seat. He hopes that if the Cabinet is expanded, he will also get a ministerial position. Since losing the 2023 Bhadrachalam Assembly election, he has been requesting the party leadership to appoint him to the Legislative Council.
Reports suggest that Veeraiah is unhappy with his current role at the corporation. He believes that his seniority in the party makes him deserving of an MLC seat. Party sources say that soon after the Congress came to power, he wrote a letter to Rahul Gandhi, urging the high command to consider his request. Before the 2023 elections, there were speculations that he would be made a minister if he won.
Veeraiah has been with the Congress for more than 30 years and has never switched parties. He was previously elected as an MLA from Mulugu. However, in the 2018 elections, the Congress leadership moved him to contest from Bhadrachalam as the Mulugu seat was given to Seethakka. Despite having little time to campaign, he won the election.
Even if Veeraiah is elected as an MLC, party leaders believe it is unlikely that the district will get another Cabinet seat, as the former Khammam district already has three ministers. However, his supporters argue that his loyalty to the party makes him a deserving candidate. To strengthen his case, Veeraiah has traveled to Delhi to meet senior leaders.
Meanwhile, his supporters are reaching out to the media to express their backing for him. Senior Congress leader T Venkateswara Rao, who is the president of the Bhadrachalam Congress mandal party, recently urged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and the party high command to induct Veeraiah as an MLC under the MLA quota.
