Congress to reconnect with farmers

30-day Rachabanda starts today in every constituency

In an effort to reach out to and reconnect with the farmers in particular and people in general, the Telangana Congress will kick off its month-long Rachabanda programme on Saturday to explain what it has in store for farmers when it comes to power.

Linking it to the Telangana sentiment, Telangana Congress president A. Revanth Reddy said he would personally participate in Akkampet village of Parkal mandal in Warangal Rural district from where the Telangana ideologue late Jayashankar hailed.

Mr. Reddy made no bones about choosing the village to launch the programme and said the late Jayashankar would have wept if he had been alive, seeing the distress and the turmoil farmers were forced into in separate Telangana.

The Rachabanda programme is an outcome of Rahul Gandhi’s suggestion to Congress leaders to go to villages and explain the ‘Warangal Declaration’ where the Congress promised huge sops to farmers including ₹ 2 lakh farm loan waiver within 30 days of coming to power and MSP to several crops.

“I want this declaration to reach to every farmer in every village and leaders and cadre should ensure that the leaflet of 9 promises made to the farmers was in their hands,” he advised the Congress leaders. “The leaflet should be seen in the hands of every youngster as well.”

Mr. Revanth Reddy said the Rachabanda is like an agreement between the party and the farmers and not a mere village meeting. “We will explain what the Congress will do and how the TRS has been cheating them denying all the earlier schemes that gave every distressed farmer more than what they get under Rythu Bandhu,” he said.

The party has appointed 300 coordinators to keep the programme going and 12,000 villages in Telangana will be covered in the next 30 days. The coordinators will plan meetings, interact with the media and talk to farmers to take the Warangal Declaration to every doorstep.

All the senior leaders have been entrusted with the responsibility of making the programme successful and their participation is made mandatory. CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka will participate in Nednoor village of Kandukur Mandal in Rangareddy district while Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy will participate in Bugga Madaram village of Chintalapalem mandal of Huzurnagar. MLC T. Jeevan Reddy will kickstart it in Polasa village of Jagityal mandal while MLA T. Jayaprakash Reddy will interact with farmers in Sangareddy constituency.

Former PCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah will speak to farmers in Komuravelli mandal while TPCC working president J. Geetha Reddy will be available in Nyalkal mandal under Zaheerabad. Former MP Ponnam Prabhakar and former Minister Shabbir Ali will be in Nagunoor village of Karimnagar and Gudem village of Kamareddy.