Sonia for Karimnagar today

Hyderabad: The visit of AICC president Sonia Gandhi to Karimnagar on Wednesday after a gap of five years is likely to give a major fillip to the campaign by the Congress party in Telangana. This is the first time that the UPA chairperson will be touring Telangana after she delivered her promise of creating a new Telangana State. Hectic arrangements are on to accord a grand reception to Sonia Gandhi at Ambedkar Stadium. Massive arrangements are being made at the stadium. This meeting assumes importance as this will be the first meeting of Sonia Gandhi after the T bill was passed.

Incidentally, it was from here that she announced in 2009 that the Congress had no objection to give separate Telangana. According to MP Ponnam Prabhakar who is overseeing the arrangements, this statement had helped him to win with a majority of 50,000 votes defeating his nearest TRS rival. In the past five years, after her Karimnagar visit, Sonia could not visit the State on a political mission. The only occasion she landed in Hyderabad was to pay tributes YSR who died in the accident. On another occasion, she did visit the State but made a aerial survey of flood-hit regions in Seemandhra region along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Telangana disturbance in the region reportedly forced to cancel her visit to Andhra Pradesh on two occasions. The party district unit under the leadership of former minister D Sridhar Babu is working overtime to mobilise huge crowds from North Telangana districts. They hope to mobilize over three lakh people and this meeting will be known as the first Vijayotsava meeting. “People are waiting to receive her and thank her for making their dream a reality,” Ponnam said.

He said Sonia Gandhi had never skipped Karimnagar during the election campaigns ever since she became the AICC president in 1987. Sonia Gandhi, he said will assure the people of Telangana that the Congress would help the new state in reconstruction of the state. She will tell the people that the Congress which has fulfilled its promise will also take up full responsibility to see that all help is extended for all round development of the new state after UPA government returns to power at centre. Tuesday’s meeting will be the 18th meeting of Sonia Gandhi in Karimnagar. In 1998 she campaigned for Karimanagar and Nizamabad for M Satyanarayana Rao and K Keshav Rao respectively. In 1999 she toured Telangana and addressed public meeting in Karimnagar. Again on March 11, 2004 and 2009 also she addressed a huge meeting in Karimnagar. Sonia Gandhi will be reaching Begumpet airport by a special aircraft at 3 pm. From here she will take a chopper to Karimnagar. All the assembly and Lok Sabha candidates from Telangana will also be present at the venue. Meanwhile, the special security team has virtually taken over the stadium and has taken all necessary security measures. The entire ground has been sanitized.