Keshav Rao elected AP Congress chief

K Keshav Rao was on Friday unanimously appointed the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president, marking the completion of the organisational polls of the ruling party in the state.

Returning officer G S Basavaraj announced Keshav Rao's election at a meeting of 588 party delegates elected from all over the state.

Keshav Rao, a close confidante of Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, was first appointed PCC president by All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi on October 30 last year. He had succeeded D Srinivas, who resigned as party president after getting inducted into the state cabinet as rural development minister.

Hailing from Telangana region, Keshav Rao belongs to the influential Munnuru Kapu caste. A member of the erstwhile legislative council, he had stints as deputy chairman of the council and as minister for education in the state cabinet in the late 70s and early 80s.

Chief Minister Rajasekhar Reddy, AICC secretary V Hanumantha Rao, Deputy Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha G Venkataswamy and former chief minister N Janardhana Reddy were present when Keshav Rao's election was announced.