Congress thanksgiving meet at Bodhan

Promises to give 90 seats in T as a gift to Sonia.

• All prominent leaders attend the meeting
• Shower praise on Congress president
• Set an agenda for Telangana development
• Madhu Yashki calls upon villagers to chase away YSRCP, TDP leaders

The Telangana Jaitra Yatra, the first meeting held at Bodhan in Nizamabad to thank AICC president Sonia Gandhi for taking a decision to carve separate Telangana state turned out to be a platform to blow the election bugle. Panchayat Raj minister K Jana Reddy called upon the people to ensure that the Congress party wins 90 out of 119 Assembly seats in the next elections.

This he said would be the best gift to Sonia Gandhi who had gifted separate Telangana to the people who had been fighting for it for six decades. Jana Reddy said that only Congress should form the government in the new state.

This remark of Jana Reddy assumes importance in the wake of the TRS leaders indicating on Thursday that they were averse to merger with Congress. Congress leaders say that the party continues to make efforts to see that TRS either merges or has electoral understanding with the Congress, as a political party they cannot sit idle and hence had decided to launch their poll campaign and keep the rank and file in a state of preparedness.

The Deputy Chief Minister said the credit for achieving separate T state should go to the youth of the region who had sacrificed their lives. He said the process of bifurcation would be over in two or three months and hence it was time for people to stand by Congress party which had made their dream a reality. Rajanarsimha said the recent agitation in Seemandhra region was not genuine one. It was created by certain vested interests.

Former PCC President D Srinivas said Sonia Gandhi was not against the people of Seemandhra. The Congress party would take all measures for the fast development of the residuary state. He called upon the leaders to identify a suitable location for the new capital and the Centre would extend required financial assistance for its formation. Equal justice would be done to all regions after bifurcation, he said.

Rajya Sabha MP V Hanumantha Rao accused the Seemandhra leaders of misleading the people of that region. They have been giving false hopes that the State would remain united. No one could stop formation of Telangana, he said.

Taking pot shots at YSRCP, he said they should understand that it was YS Rajasekhara Reddy who had reopened the T issue to defeat TDP. YSR had taken a delegation of 41 MLAs led by G Chinna Reddy to Sonia Gandhi and submitted a memorandum to her demanding separate T state. When leaders like J C Diwakar Reddy, G Venkat Reddy and others asked him why he was doing this, he laughed and said, “This is necessary to defeat Chandrababu Naidu.”

Madhu Yashki called upon the people to chase away YSRCP and TDP from villages as they were anti-Telangana.

The Minister for Information and Public Relations, D K Aruna, eulogized Sonia Gandhi for meeting the long-felt need of Telangana people. She said that the only Congress had steadfastly stood by the people of Telangana, striving for realization of their dreams. She noted that several movements were carried out and scores had ended their lives to press the demand for Statehood to the region.

Aruna expressed her shock at the construction of a ‘samadhi’ for Sonia Gandhi in Tirupati recently. Condemning the ghastly act, she said that it was regrettable that in a country which accords highest place to women in the society should witness such deplorable incidents. “It is not part of our culture to disrespect a woman in so demeaning a nature,” she pointed out.

Prominent among those who attended the meeting were Ministers D Sridhar Babu, Sunita Lakshma Reddy, MP S Rajaiah, MLC Shabbir Ali, several district Congress leaders. Despite the efforts made by Congress, the turnout of crowds fell short of their expectation felt the leaders.