The Telangana Rashtra Samiti is upbeat that the election rally addressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi at Karimnagar on Wednesday was not a big success.
Party leaders had apprehended that the Congress would put up a big show as this was the first meeting of Ms. Gandhi after Telangana State was declared. However, the Congress failed to create an impression cashing in on the occasion.
Sources said the Congress would have done better by organising the meeting at SRR Government College grounds, the venue for the TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s rally three days earlier, but instead it was held at Ambedkar Stadium where Ms. Gandhi addressed similar election rallies in 2004 and 2009. The stadium is smaller than the college ground and yet was not filled to its capacity, sources added.
In the backdrop of the poor performance by Congress, the TRS candidates stepped up their campaign on Thursday by taking up door-to-door visits.
A matter of concern for TRS leaders, however, was that Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao targeted the Telugu Desam and BJP in his public speeches. They fear that the negotiations with TDP and BJP in government formation might not be smooth if the situation continues. They expected a hung Assembly which necessitated taking the support of the two parties with an expected tally of 12 to 15 MLAs. The TRS candidates also campaigned in an open-top jeep telling voters to give mandate to the home grown party.
They insisted that the reconstruction of Telangana was only possibly with TRS. They promised to implement everything that was mentioned in the election manifesto.
TRS president of Medak district K. Rajaiah Yadav said the party had drawn up plans to mobilise two lakh people for the meeting of KCR at Gajwel on Friday. They would be shifted from Medak, Dubbaka, Siddipet and partly Narsapur Assembly segments.
