Posters, banners festoon Hyderabad to welcome Rahul Gandhi

Hyderabad: The Congress unit in Telangana has made elaborate arrangements to welcome top party leader Rahul Gandhi who will be arriving later on Tuesday day to address party leaders ahead of the caste survey in the state.

Posters, banners, and flexis have come up in various parts of the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad to welcome the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.

Traffic intersections, flyovers and other places have been decked up with party flags, banners and flexis carrying photographs of Rahul Gandhi, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leader Sonia Gandhi, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, and state unit President B. Mahesh Kumar Goud.

Since this is Rahul Gandhi’s first visit to Hyderabad after the appointment of Goud as the state chief, he and other leaders are rolling out a red carpet for him.

"We love you Rahul Gandhi Ji for caste census in Telangana," reads a flexi with heart symbol put up by Dr Kota Neelima, Congress in-charge for Sanathnagar Assembly constituency.

Several such flexis and hoardings have come up around Begumpet Airport, where Rahul Gandhi would be arriving for a two-hour visit to the city.

The banners, posters and flexis have also been erected on the route from the Begumpet Airport to Gandhi Ideology Centre, Bowenpally, where he will be addressing the meeting organised by the Telangana Congress.

Former minister and Khariratabad MLA D. Narender, former MLA Mynampalli Hanumanth Rao, his son and MLA Mynampalli Rohith have also put up banners and hoardings to welcome Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress leader is likely to give direction to the party functionaries a day ahead of the launch of the state-wide survey in line with his idea of a caste census. After the meeting, the Chief Minister, Goud, and some senior leaders are likely to meet Rahul Gandhi separately at the same venue.

Rahul Gandhi’s visit is significant as Telangana is set to become the first state to undertake a caste survey as promised by him in the elections. He is expected to give directions to the party leaders on the need to successfully undertake the exercise as the party is keen to project the Telangana model to replicate the same in other states ruled by it.

A comprehensive door-to-door household survey (socio, educational, economic, employment, political, and caste survey) of the entire state will be undertaken from November 6. More than 85,000 government employees will conduct the survey for which the Planning Department has been designated as the nodal department.