Rahul for T on Apr 13, Sonia on Apr 16

Hyderabad: The Congress party which has been lagging behind in launching its campaign is now gearing up to get its act together. According to senior Congress leader K Jana Reddy, AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi will address three meetings in Telangana on April 13. Three days later, AICC president Sonia Gandhi will take part in three meetings in the region.

She will explain to the Telangana people how the Congress party kept its promise of according statehood to the region and realized their 60-year-old dream of Telangana State. After the party top brass kicks off the campaign, the T leaders will spread across the region and hold a series of meetings.

The party proposes to go to people, promising all-round development of the new state. In fact, the T campaign committee headed by C Damodara Rajanarasimha some time back decided to take up a massive campaign programme, claiming the credit for making T state a reality. But the party could not finalise the action plan. TPCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah has been busy shuttling between New Delhi and Hyderabad to finalise the issue of seat-sharing with CPI and selection of candidates for assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

TRS, TDP leave Cong behind

On the other hand, the TRS has been going aggressive in its campaign claiming full credit for making T state a reality and also making a slew of promises. The TDP which is not very strong in the region too has held two Praja Garjana programmes one in Adilabad and Warangal and had attracted huge crowds.

But the Congress has been locked in a war or words with TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao. Though the party high command still hopes that there would be some kind of understanding between the two parties soon, the TRS and the TPCC presidents continue to lock horns.