Congress leaders kick off unofficial poll campaign

They hail Chiru as saviour of the party

A girl performing a dance at the Children's Day function organised by the Rajagopal Foundation in Vijayawada on Wednesday. Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar

The election campaign for the Congress Party was unofficially kicked off at a meeting attended by Union Minister of State for Tourism K. Chiranjeevi.

MP Lagadapati Rajagopal in a speech that roused much cheering raised his popular slogan “if you hit it, has to be a six and if you vote, it has to be for Congress.”

Other speakers like State Minister for Secondary Education Kolusu Parthasarathi, MLAs Vellampalli Srinivas, Malladi Vishnu, Yellamanchilli Ravi, and D.Y.Das who participated in the function hailed Mr Chiranjeevi as the saviour of the Congress in the State in the wake of developments such as formation of YSR Congress Party. The MP and MLAs said at a time when people on whom the Congress depended upon betrayed it, Mr. Chiranjeevi came forward to support the party.

Mr. Vishnu said Telugu Desam Party leader N.Chandrababu Naidu was saying that Mr. Chiranjeevi who was a hero had now turned into a zero. But Mr. Naidu had to wait till the 2014 elections to find out whether Mr. Chiranjeevi was a hero or zero. Mr Vishnu said that he had no doubt that Mr. Chiranjeevi was a hero and all would vote for him.

Mr. Das said the Congress had won just six Assembly seats in Krishna district, but with Mr. Chiranjeevi’s help it would win all the 16 seats.

A different Chiru

Mr. Chiranjeevi was different from the erstwhile PRP leader that the people of Vijayawada new. He was his charming best both with the people and the leaders. This was reciprocated by the Congress leaders. Mr. Parathasarathi honoured the Union Minister with a ‘gaja mala’ on behalf of Krishna district people. Mr. Chiranjeevi shook hands with the public whenever possible and had to often use force to pull back his hand because people wouldn’t let go. Mr. Chiranjeevi was very patient even at the media conference taking time to answer all the queries put by reporters. He even chatted with some of them and posed for pictures when requested.

People thronged his meetings at the Indira Gandhi Stadium and Pezzonipet despite heavy security.

Minor hitch

There was, however, a minor problem when followers of Vijayawada East MLA Ravi stopped Mr. Chiranjeevi’s rally in front of Executive Club on Ring Road. The followers reportedly took objection to Mr. Chiranjeevi giving a seat to Devineni Avinash in the bus he was travelling in. They relented when Mr. Ravi intervened and asked them to give way.