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'It is a reward for my loyalty'

"It is a great honour that Soniaji has conferred on me for my total loyalty to the family. I will serve her and the party," says newly-nominated Congress Working Committee member from Andhra Pradesh, B Sarojini Pulla Reddy.

A soft-spoken former minister, Sarojini takes the place of former Union minister and former AP chief minister Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy. Her nomination took Congress circles by surprise because three prominent aspirants -- Vijayabhaskar Reddy, Congress Legislature Party leader Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and Lok Sabha member and former chief minister N Janardhana Reddy-- were lobbying for CWC membership.

When the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee adopted an unanimous resolution sometime ago authorising Sonia to pick up the new CWC members, the move had the blessings of Vijayabhaskar Reddy whose supporters thought that he would be renominated. But the personal rapport that Sarojini established with Sonia over the years came in handy, party sources say.

Sarojini told rediff.com that "party leaders and workers who are committed and loyal to the family will be happy over my nomination." Incidentally, she is the second lady from the state to be made a CWC member. Earlier, former minister M Lakshmi Devi had a brief stint as CWC member.

Starting her career in the Congress nearly four decades ago, Sarojini Pulla Reddy was elected as a councillor in the Hyderabad municipal corporation in 1965. She became the first lady mayor of Hyderabad -- and the second woman to don these honours in India after Tara Cherian, who became the first lady mayor of Madras in 1966.

She was elected to the legislative assembly from Malakpet constituency in 1967. She represented the constituency for two terms but lost in 1978 by a narrow margin of 1,000 votes. She also became the first chairman of Hyderabad Urban Development Authority in 1975.

After that she was nominated to the legislative council, she was inducted into the cabinet by then chief minister M Channa Reddy in 1979. She held the municipal administration portfolio. She was also a minister in the cabinets of T Anjaiah, BhavanamVenkatram and Vijayabhaskar Reddy. She handled health, social welfare and women and child welfare portfolios in the Kotla Ministry.

She was the first woman to be Hyderabad Congress Committee president. She had a stint as a general secretary of the AP Congress Committee during Jalagam Vengala Rao's stewardship. Later on, she was vice-president of the APCC under successive PCC chiefs till recently.

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