Red shirt and red sari volunteers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday took out a rally from Tummalapallivari Kshetrayya Kalakshetram as a prelude to the party's extended central committee meeting beginning on Saturday.
A two-day festival of local folk arts being organised at the Gymkhana grounds to mark the occasion was also inaugurated by the party's central secretariat member V. Srinivasa Rao.
The volunteers wearing red caps and red T-shirts, saris and carrying the party flag marched with discipline from Police Control Room to Swaraj Maidan with district secretary V. Umamaheswara Rao, state committee member Ch. Babu Rao, city secretary R. Raghu, Mahila wing leader Swaroopa Rani and corporator D. Kasinath leading them.
Activists and sympathisers were in a jubilant mood with the date of the national meeting drawing close.
Arches were put up on important roads and important junctions decorated with the party flags. The arrival of a few delegates from Kerala two days in advance added to the jubilation.
People came in a continuous stream to the Gymkhana ground to see the dais arranged by Praja Natya Mandali for the folk arts programme.
The dais was named after Ravindranath Tagore to pay homage to the doyen of art and culture and winner of Nobel Prize for Literature. Over 300 folk artistes from different parts of the State gave performances on the occasion. A photography exhibition highlighting the activities and movements spearheaded by the party in Krishna district down the ages was also inaugurated for the benefit of the public.
Other exhibitions reflecting the pastoral lives of farmers, the impact of globalisation on the common man, established to mark the occasion were also inaugurated in the evening.
