Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal
HYDERABAD
Setting the tone for a high profile Telangana Assembly Elections-2023 campaign to take on the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi will flag off the bus yatra from Ramappa Temple in Mulugu district on Wednesday.
The party has initially decided on three-day yatra before taking a break for Dasara holidays. The yatra will cover Warangal, Peddapalli, Karimnagar and Nizamabad parliamentary constituencies in the first phase. The intention of the central leadership is to put up a show of unity and boost the morale of the cadres.
The party is seeing a resurgence of a sort after the emphatic win of the Congress in neighbouring Karnataka. Determined to repeat the result here, the party has already announced six guarantees to attract the voters in a big way.
The yatra is a combination of mass contact programme, public meetings, padayatras by Rahul and Priyanka. The idea is to reach out to the voters as close as possible. Also, the route map planned by the party leaders in where Congress has announced its candidates in the first list.
After the flagging off the yatra, a public meeting is scheduled in Mulugu Town after which Rahul entourage would reach Bhupalpalli where he will join the local youth in a padayatra. On October 19, the party has carefully planned Rahul’s interaction with Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), NTPC and Ramagundam Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited employees union at Ramangundam. In the evening, the senior Congress leader will address a public meeting in Pedddpalli and reach Karimnagar to undertake an padayatra.
During his tour of Nizamabad parliamentary constituency, Rahul will meet beedi rollers, Gulf migrants families and pay a visit to Nizam Sugar Factory at Shakkarnagar near Bodhan, an iconic sugar factory, which as sold to private entities.
High on his agenda is an interaction with the farmers of Armoor area where turmeric is growing in huge quantity. Recently, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced setting up of National Turmeric Board and he elaborated on the same at his Nizamabad public meeting. He will wind up his yatra with a padayatra in Nizamabad town, which has sizeable Muslim population.
Party leaders in these four Lok Sabha constituencies have plunged headlong into making elaborate arrangements. Some rival party leaders joining the Congress is also not ruled out, according to party sources.
