Ahead of polls, Congress plans 6-month yatra
ADILABAD: The Telangana Congress is likely to launch a six-month-long marathon padayatra between August-end and early September in the run-up to the state elections next year.
It will be launched after the party’s organisational elections at DCC, mandal and TPCC levels are held between June 10 and August 7.
TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy is working on modalities for the same, which will be held under the title of ‘Praja Deevena.’
According to sources, Revanth has decided to launch the marathon as he expects the TRS to go for the elections early in the year. Revanth’s close associates will take charge of supervising the marathon, they said.
The sources said that the newly elected presidents of DCC committees are expected to play a key role in canvassing voters and that aspiring candidates for state elections will refrain from becoming DCC heads. Party members said that the march will be on the lines of late CM Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's 2004 march, which paved the way for the Congress to enter the political landscape of erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh.
Also, Revanth is expected to meet BC groups, as a damage control exercise, following his speech at a recently held meeting of the Reddy community. He is expected to announce sops for them if Congress comes to power. A senior Congress leader told Deccan Chronicle that internal rifts among Congress leaders will be settled soon, before the constitution of organisational committees and the subsequent 'marathon padayatra.'
It can already be seen that among rivals in the erstwhile Adilabad district Congress, the leader said, citing the example of former MLC K. Premsagar Rao, former MLA Aleti Maheshwar Reddy expressing a willingness to work together.