Congress bigwigs sweat it out for candidates

Hyderabad: Senior leaders in the State are toiling in the hot sun day in, day for the past one week campaigning for party candidates in the elections to Zilla Parishad and Mandal Parishad Territorial constituencies.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, working presidents Ponnam Prabhakar and A Revanth Reddy, MLAs D Sridhar Babu and Rohit Reddy, former MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, MLC T Jeavan Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and TPCC vice-president Mallu Ravi are straining every nerve to make a mark.

With an objective to boost the morale of the party second-rung leaders, the leaders have set off on intense campaign.

The Congress seniors have been braving the high temperature in rural areas. Some of them have stay put in their own districts and working shoulder to shoulder with the district leaders.

The Congress leaders said that the rural local body elections are a good opportunity for the party to revive its fortunes in the State after defeat in the Assembly polls.

They said as the polls would be held with the ballot papers, the Congress expressed the hope that they could make substantial gains.

They alleged due to the rigging of electronic voting machines, the TRS was able to win the Assembly polls.

The leaders insisted that the EVMs had been tampered with and the results were manipulated in favour of the ruling party.

The elections being held with the ballot papers in the Gram Panchayat polls proved that the Congress could put up a good performance if EVMs were not used.

The rural local body elections would give an opportunity to about 1.56 crore voters to express their opinions.

By winning good number of votes, the Congress can prove that it is still a force to reckon with, the leaders pointed out.

If the Congress is able to win at least one third of 538 ZPTCs and five thousand MPTCs, it can prove that the party is still enjoying popular support.

A number of party MLAs defected to the ruling party because they felt that the party cannot ensure their prospects.

A win in the local body elections would boost the morale of the party cadre, it is felt.