Expressing a sense of disappointment that the Congress party has been unable to identify the candidates to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, district-level leaders wanted former Ministers to be fielded to give a boost to the sagging moral of the cadres.
Rival TDP and the YSR Congress have made a head-start by unofficially giving the go ahead to the identified candidates to contest the Lok Sabha elections, but the Congress party was lagging behind, several district and city Congress committee presidents complained at a meeting organised by the PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana at Gandhi Bhavan to discuss the preparation for municipal elections on Wednesday.
Sources said many leaders opined that in the given scenario when the Congress was on the back foot after the State bifurcation, former Ministers could give a sense of confidence to the grass-root level leaders because of their experience.
The PCC chief was said to have hinted that the high command was also thinking on the same lines to bolster the image of the party. Leaders lamented that the party was hopelessly placed as many as six sitting MPs were expelled by the high command for anti-party activities.
Rajahmundry city Congress president Nakka Nageswar reportedly urged the leadership whether the expulsion of the sitting MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar would be revoked. The PCC president was said to have remarked that the high command would take a call on the issue.
The meeting decided that local leaders would constitute a committee to identify the candidates for the municipal elections.
The PCC chief and others told the meeting that leaders should go to the people and explain that it was the Congress that has announced special package for the region.
They also should highlight the special status given to four backward districts of Rayalaseema and three in north coastal Andhra.
The meeting was attended by Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, former Ministers – Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, Vatti Vasant Kumar, C. Ramachandraiah, Kondru Murali Mohan, P. Balaraju and Thota Narasimhulu.
