Rahul holds talks over Telangana
WINNING CANDIDATES AND LAWMAKERS WITH CLEAN IMAGE ASSURED TICKETS
Congress president Rahul Gandhi yesterday met all the senior party leaders from Telangana to discuss the party’s election strategy and alliance with other parties. During the three-hour meeting, Rahul also met some of the leaders individually.
Rahul asked the leaders not to make any public comments on alliance and ticket distribution, and not to criticise each other. He assured that the party will give tickets only to winning candidates and all the sitting members of the legislative assembly with a good image will be fielded from their constituencies. He observed that Congress will fight in all the constituencies where it was strong and leave other constituencies to the its alliance partners.
After the meeting, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary, R.C. Kuntia, said that all those who were fighting against the Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s (TRS) corrupt and autocratic rule were with the Congress and the party was ready to align with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
Rahul has authorised the state Congress president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy to hold talks with other parties. “But the final decision on an alliance will be [taken] by the AICC president,” Kuntia said, adding that the Congress will abide by the norms of the alliance in distribution of tickets. “The party president urged all the leaders to work together to bring Congress to power and warned that anti-party activity by any leader, however big he is, will not be tolerated,” Kuntia noted.
Reddy said the party will not concede constituencies where it is confident of winning, to other parties. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah will kick off his party’s campaign for Telangana assembly election at Mahbubnagar tomorrow. Prior to that, he will hold discussions with state party leaders and review the election preparations and points to be included in the manifesto. Before leaving for Mahbubnagar, he will also offer at the Durga temple in the old city’s communally sensitive Lal Darwaza area.
Briefing the media about Shah’s programme, Telangana state BJP president K. Lakshman said that no leader from other parties will be admitted into the BJP during the visit. “The joining will take place at the district levels,” he said.
Lashing out at the Grand Alliance of Congress, Telugu Desam Part (TDP) and others, he said it was “unholy” and without any principles. He also alleged an alliance between the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, terming it “dangerous”. The BJP candidates will be named after the poll schedule is release, he added.
It was also decided that during the election campaign, Rahul will address rallies in ten districts. He has also constituted a three-member screening committee for Telangana. Some of the leaders requested that Sonia Gandhi should also visit the state for the election campaign.
Meanwhile, TRS member of the legislative council Bhupathi Reddy and noted film producer Bandla Ganesh joined the Congress party in the presence of the Congress president yesterday.