Will give accurate feedback to AICC on Telangana

A stream of visitors flock the residence of Transport Minister Botcha Satyanarayana in the Ministers' Quarters in Jubilee Hills to congratulate him on his appointment as the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president. A USP of ‘Satti Babu', as he is commonly referred by his friends and followers, is his earthy approach and the instant rapport he strikes with people.
Amid a rush of Congressmen and media personnel waiting for interviews, Mr. Satyanarayana spoke to Ravi Reddy on Wednesday. Excerpts:
How do you react to your new assignment?
My accessibility and commitment to the party fetched me this job. My appointment has proved that even an ordinary worker can get the top post and has sent a signal that the party does not believe in promoting only influential persons. I never lobbied for the post and did not meet central leaders in the last six months.
As the PCC chief, do you still subscribe to your earlier stand favouring separate Telangana?
There is no change in my stand that I will abide by whatever stand the Congress high command takes. Given my contacts with the Congress leaders from all three regions, I will try to elicit views transparently and gave accurate feedback to the Congress high command.
How will you address the problem of lack of coordination between the government and the party?

The party has to own up government programmes and the cadres must keep a tab on their implementation and report lapses. New programmes and ideas must be discussed at party fora and be placed before the Chief Minister for implementation. When YSR was the Chief Minister, he asked a group of Ministers to plan a programme for the inauguration of Indiramma houses. We came up with Indiramma Sambaralu, where the party and the government were involved.
How do you assess the impact of YSR Congress on your party?
It is natural that there will be some impact when a member of a family parts company. But, we are confident of overcoming the challenge by studying the reasons why partymen left us. If someone deserts us for personal gain, there is little we can do. But, if there are political issues, we have to analyse and address them.
I asked a senior Congress leader why he joined YSR Congress. He said one was his regard for YSR and second was the fact that YSR gave him some money for fighting the election in 2004 which he increased by over 100 times in 2009. There are no two opinions that Congress MLAs have to abide by party discipline and we will not hesitate to initiate action against those who do not fall in line.
What about the charge that your government is diluting YSR's programmes?
It is not correct. We are spending more funds now -- Rs. 5,000 crore against Rs. 2,000 crore when YSR was at the helm. There was some problem due to change of leadership and financial crunch. Many schemes conceived by YSR were implemented with the high command's approval. As the Chief Minister, he implemented them and we have to own up the programmes. Suppose, a new programme is launched by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, will he not get the credit for it? What is wrong in it?
Will there be a Congress Core committee?
Yes, but it will not be a completely new entity. It will be the same old coordination committee, which will be renamed. The size of the core committee will be the same as that of the coordination panel.