Enthused by the response to the ‘Vijayabheri’ public meeting last Sunday, where the AICC leader Sonia Gandhi announced six guarantees, the State unit of the Congress is now chalking out plans to take out a bus yatra beginning from Adilabad sometime in October.
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Visibly elated at the success of the two-day Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting followed by the successful public meeting where the party tried to capture the imagination of the people with its specific promises, the party leaders are hoping that a bus yatra with all the seniors would further boost their chances of winning the Assembly elections.
The idea of taking out a bus yatra came up for discussion during an informal meeting of the Congress Screening Committee which met in New Delhi on Wednesday briefly. Due to voting on the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Parliament, the Screening Committee chairman K. Muralidharan, TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy, MPs N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy left the meeting. So it was decided to continue the meeting to finalise the candidates for the Assembly elections in Telangana on Thursday evening.
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A top TPCC leader said that during the brief meeting, the party leders were keen that a bus yatra covering crucial north Telangana districts should be undertaken. “Roping in all the seniors and sending across the right message of unity besides publicising the six guarantees to the people, will be the top priority of the yatra,” the senior leader remarked.
Apart from reaching out to the people in the districts during the bus yatra, the party is now planning to go on a massive outreach programme in Hyderabad and its surrouding areas too to improve its prospects.
Meanwhile, the Screening committee headed by K. Muralidharan met for some time at the Congress War Room in New Delhi. As they had to attend the Parliament session, the meeting was deferred to Thursday evening. Among others, the brief meeting was attended by CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, AICC in charge of TS Manickrao Thackre, Jignesh Mevani, Baba Siddiqui, Mansoor Ali Khan, Vishnu Nath and Campaign Committee chairman Madhu Yaskhi Goud.
The Pradesh Election Committee in consultation with the Screening Committee had last month in a series of meetings screened the applications received for all the 119 Assembly constituencies. In all, 1,006 applications were submitted in Gandhi Bhavan, the party headquarters in Hyderabad during the exercise.
Informed sources said the committee will screen names for each constituency. “The panel is likely to clear the names of candidates where there is no stiff competition. Names of 30 candidates in all likelihood will be announced in the first list,” sources said.