Hyderabad: Bandi Sanjay Kumar plans marathon padayatra

Hyderabad: Padayatra fever has set in Telangana. State BJP chief and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar has announced to go on a 55-day, 750-km long 'Prajaswamya Telangana' Padayatra from August 9 to October 2.

This is just the beginning. He would be taking up more padayatra to cover the length and breadth of Telangana in a phased manner. There would be a gap of three months between each padayatra.

BJP chose August 9 as the day to launch the padayatra since it coincides with the Quit India call given by Mahatma Gandhi and the concluding day happens to be the day of Gandhi Jayanthi.

Just as former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had Chevella sentiment for launching all-new programmes, including his 1,470-km padayatra, Sanjay has the sentiment of starting programmes from Bhagyalakshmi temple in Old City.

He launched the campaign for the GHMC elections from here and the party's performance was impressive. Hence, he has decided to start his padayatra after offering prayers to the Goddess. En route, he will cover Ranga Reddy, Medak and Nizamabad districts and touch about 70 villages and mandals.

He will also cover all the mandals under the Huzurabad Assembly segment before ending at Huzurabad. The first phase will start with 9,000 party workers. Sanjay said that the Telangana was formed with the objective of "Nillu-Nidhulu-Niyamakalu" (Water-Funds-Jobs). But, after its formation, it has ended in the hands of a "dictatorial family rule".

He said during the padayatra he will focus on a mass awareness campaign exposing the "corruption and irregularities" of the TRS governance. During the programme, Kumar will also interact with people to know their problems. He will also utilise the padayatra to speak about various central schemes launched by the BJP government at the Centre.