Crucial Congress meet today to discuss host of issues

Hyderabad: Ahead of the notification of nominations for Phase-IV Lok Sabha polls in Telangana, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal will be holding crucial meeting with party’s Lok Sabha candidates, along with Parliamentary incharge Ministers. Eliciting the party workers’ support to ‘parachute candidates’ remains amongst the key issues to be discussed on Sunday.

With less than a month for Lok Sabha’s Phase-IV polls, the AICC leadership has decided to take stock of the situation in Telangana and streamline the party’s efforts from grass roots to Pradesh Congress Committee level. Besides deciding on the style of poll campaign, roping in star AICC campaigners, bolstering the coordination between different wings and bringing together the rank and file, the AICC wants to ensure that every candidate gets the maximum support, including those who have joined the party recently.

As part of this endeavour, Venugopal will be holding the key meeting at a hotel in Shamshabad with all the Lok Sabha incharge Ministers besides CM A Revanth Reddy and Deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and party candidates.

According to sources, despite deployment of Parliament incharges and Assembly coordinators, the AICC has received unfavourable feedback from the State, particularly from Sunil Kanugolu’s team. It has pointed out about the leaders’ lack of determination and enthusiasmthis time when compared to the Assembly campaign. Given the fact that some ‘parachute candidates’ were representing the Congress the AICC leadership felt there was need for important patchwork to be done, to cement the bond within the ranks and files. It was also found that the election material and manifesto copies provided to leaders in some constituencies were not distributed amongst the voters.

Following the success of ‘Jana Jatara’ sabha held at Tukkuguda on April 6, in which Rahul Gandhi took part it is believed that the Congress party has decided to invite more AICC leaders including Priyanka Gandhi and AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge.

Rahul Gandhi will once again be addressing the State in at least two to three locations, including Nizamabad, Peddapalli and Warangal. With Nalgonda and Bhongir considered to be Congress strongholds and prestigious, the party has already taken Priyanka Gandhi’s consent for addressing in Miryalaguda and Choutuppal towns in May first week. While Kharge is likely to address in different towns in erstwhile Mahbubnagar district, Sunday’s crucial meeting will also be chalking out the plans to conduct road shows, corner meetings besides public meetings.