AP Congress plans Delhi-like rallies in state

Published: 05th November 2012 08:47 AM  |   Last Updated: 05th November 2012 08:47 AM

By J R Prasad

With the AICC holding a massive rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on Sunday, the Congress seems to have entered the poll mode.

Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, several Union ministers from state and state cabinet ministers and other leaders who attended the AICC rally are in a jubilant mood over the grand success of the rally.

Apart from PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana, several leaders of the state Congress now feel that holding such rallies and public meetings in the state will rejuvenate the party cadre, which is in a state of disenchantment in the aftermath of the humiliating drubbing in the bypolls, and prepare them for the 2014 polls.

An opinion is gaining ground among senior leaders that the party is in a state of slumber when TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and YSRCP leader Sharmila are undertaking competitive padayatras and mingling with masses. Former chief minister Nadendla Bhasker Rao, Parliament member Kavuri Sambasiva Rao and K Kesava Rao have made no secret of their displeasure over the lack of enthusiasm among the party cadre.

BOTCHA’S TOUR: The PCC president is all set to undertake an extensive tour of the districts to strengthen the party. As a prelude, he will kick off the party membership enrolment drive in district headquarters and Assembly constituencies  on November 14 (Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary) and November 19 (Indira Gandhi’s birth anniversary) respectively in a big way.

There is a widespread opinion in the party that ministers and senior leaders are not showing the enthusiasm to undertake statewide tours to publicise government schemes.

CHIRU’S READINESS: Union minister of state for tourism K Chiranjeevi is also of the same opinion. The government’s welfare programmes should be propagated effectively at the rural level if the alienated sections of voters were to be brought back into the Congress fold, he said. “I am ready to visit any place in the state to rejuvenate the cadre if the PCC leadership asks me,” the actor-turned-politician said.