Like its decision on Telangana, which was taken in the nick of time, the AICC leadership has begun all-out efforts to claim total credit for creating a separate state of Telangana in the ensuing polls at a time when the D-day is hardly four days away.
The Congress, which appears to be lagging behind its rivals in undertaking an aggressive poll campaign in the run-up to the general election in Telangana, has now begun making ‘last-minute efforts’ to win over the electorate in the region.
Following BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s whirlwind tour in Telangana, his Congress counterpart and AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi is all set to address two public meetings — one at Warangal and another at Hyderabad — in the region on Friday as part of the second leg of his tour across the new state.
As already reported, these meetings will be followed by public meetings of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Bhongir in Nalgonda district and AICC chief Sonia Gandhi at Andole in Medak district on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Against this backdrop, AICC state affairs incharge Digvijaya Singh arrived inHyderabad on Thursday. Soon after landing, the AICC point man said they would intensify their party’s poll campaign in Telangana from Friday. Stating that he would stay put in Hyderabad till the polls are over, Digvijaya Singh said he would tour various districts in the region to campaign for the party candidates.
Taking a dig at TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, the AICC general secretary said, “I have not delivered T-state in exchange of the merger of the TRS with the Congress. We are only asking Rao why he has gone back on his promise to merge his party with the Congress as he had promised us earlier to do so.”
Meanwhile, the AICC leadership has decided to deploy more of its top leaders from Delhi in Telangana to campaign for the party in the next five days. As per this decision, Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will undertake poll canvassing for the party in the areas dominated by minority sections of people in the Lok Sabha segments in Telangana. For instance, Azad will campaign for the party in the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency.
At the same time, the high command has decided to hold another public meeting at Adilabad with all the senior leaders of the Telangana Congress. By holding the meeting, the leadership wants to send a signal to the party cadres that there are no differences among the party heavyweights in the region.
On the other hand, another Union minister and AICC emissary Jairam Ramesh, who has been touring Telangana for several days to rejuvenate the party cadres, held a meeting with the leaders of Telangana employees’ associations at a hotel here on Thursday. According to sources, Jairam sought the support of the Telangana employees for the Congress in the elections.
Later, addressing the media at Gandhi Bhavan here along with AICC SC Cell chief Koppula Raju, Ramesh said there was no confusion at all over division of government employees between the two emerging states.
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