The Congress leadership had a virtual meeting with the party leaders right up to the in-charges at mandal-level with a view to step up campaigning for the byelection to Nagarjunasagar Assembly Constituency.
Asking the party leaders not to see the byelection to Nagarjunasagar just as another byelection, AICC in-charge of party affairs in Telangana Manickam Tagore wanted them to put in all out efforts during the 10 days time remaining for electioneering so that the party candidate and senior leader K. Jana Reddy emerged victorious with a good majority.
President of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Congress Legislature Party Leader M. Bhatti Vikramarka, Mr. Jana Reddy, MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, TPCC working presidents Ponnam Prabhakar and J. Kusum Kumar and others too spoke at the virtual meeting.
‘Tacit understanding’
Mr. Tagore said byelection to Nagarjunsagar was important for the party as it could bring a turnaround and defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). He asked the party leaders to expose the ‘tacit understanding’ between the two parties.
Stating that the contest in Nagarjunasagar was practically only between the Congress and the TRS, TPCC president Uttam Reddy said although the victory of Mr. Jana Reddy was a foregone conclusion the focus of the party ranks should be on the majority.
‘Anti Lambadi’
Asking the BJP and the TRS to announce their policy on the issue of Lambadi community in the list of Scheduled Tribes, Mr. Uttam Reddy alleged that BJP was against the Lambadi community in the list of STs. BJP Member of Parliament Soyam Bapu Rao had written to the Prime Minister requesting removal of the community from the ST list.
He mentioned that it was during the Congress rule they were included in the ST list and helped lakhs of Lambadis get opportunities in education and employment. He suggested the party leaders to explain the danger lurking at them (Lambadi community) at the behest of the BJP and garner their support to the party (Congress).
Rising unemployment
On the suicide of unemployed youth Sunil Naik he said it was the impact of increasing unemployment in the State and there was a need to elect leaders like Mr. Jana Reddy to bring pressure on the government to take up recruitment. On the excesses of TRS leaders, Mr. Uttam Reddy alleged that they were already in the land, sand, mine and wine mafia and now they had graduated to be part of drug mafia and it was for Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to prove his sincerity by acting against the leaders involved.
Former ministers G. Vinod, R. Damodar Reddy, former MPs Mallu Ravi and M. Anjan Kumar Yadav, Youth Congress president Shivasena Reddy, NSUI president B. Venkat and others attended.