Congress to rope in star campaigners for Telangana

Hyderabad: The Congress is inclined to rope in a few star campaigners and senior leaders of the party for its election campaigning. The party is set to plunge into the canvassing exercise, starting Thursday or Friday. The Congress has planned at least three public meetings to be addressed by Rahul Gandhi and has urged the All India Congress Committee to also send AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi for the campaign in the state.

The Grand Old Party has shifted its focus towards the campaign as the dicey exercise for selection of candidates has been completed. Except for the Khammam parliamentary constituency, the party has announced candidates for all the constituencies. PCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Leader of the Opposition in Assembly Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and chairperson of Campaign Committee Vijayasanthi would shoulder the campaign responsibility in the state.

LoP Bhatti Vikramarka told The Hans India that the list of the star campaigners would be released on Thursday. He said that it would include a few film stars and senior leaders. The campaign would be held on decentralized basis with tours across the state. Road shows and public meetings would be held as part of the campaign. The schedule of the campaign programme would be issued in a day or two, he said.

Vikramarka said the focus of the campaign would be on the dire need to elect Congress so that Rahul Gandhi could become the Prime Minister. People would be urged to choose between a Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) who divided the country on the lines of religion and Rahul Gandhi, president of Congress, who treats entire country as a big family.

The party would highlight the point that the Modi regime has demolished all democratic institutions like Planning Commission, Finance Commission and Election Commission, which had been built during the erstwhile Congress regime. The Modi government has devastated the economy by recourse to demonetization.

Vikramarka said that they would explain how the Telangana Rashtra Samithi has been helping the Bharatiya Janata Party and expose the nexus between the Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen and the BJP through the TRS.

PCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy may participate in limited programmes as he has been selected as candidate for the Nalgonda Parliamentary Constituency. He is likely to appear in public meetings to be addressed by Rahul and Priyanka.

The Congress would explain how the TRS had failed to achieve the promises that had been made to the state in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. They would tell the people that should the Congress form government at the Centre, it would fulfill all the promises made to Telangana.