Hyderabad: As Khammam gets ready for senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Telangana Jana Garjana’ public meeting on Sunday, the party has alleged that the ruling BRS is creating transport barriers for party workers and people to attend the meeting.
Stating that the BRS is using the state police to create checkposts and is discouraging people to reach Khammam, the grand old party leaders also alleged that, despite having paid Rs 2 crore to rent 1,500 Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) buses to transport people from throughout the state to Khammam, the government has not provided the buses.
“People of Khammam were threatened that the social welfare sops that the state government provides will be cut if they attend Rahul Gandhi’s meeting. The police are also seizing private vehicles,” Congress leaders alleged.
Motivated by its triumph in the Karnataka Assembly elections, the Congress is preparing to sound the poll bugle in Telangana on Sunday with this big public gathering led by Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul will felicitate party senior leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka for his state-wide padayatra and also officially induct former MP and BRS leader Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy into the party.
State Congress President Revanth Reddy has said that Rahul Gandhi’s public rally will give the party much-needed energy.
The party claims that if it wins 10 seats in the Khammam area, it will sweep the state, citing the anti-incumbency factor and the alleged scandal surrounding the current BRS government’s distribution of podu land.
The Congress is also trying to counter the BJP’s efforts to emerge as the alternative to the ruling BRS.
During the recent few of years, the BJP has won two assembly bypolls and performed well in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections, posing a danger to Congress’s major opposition tag.
“3.8 Crore people of Telangana want change. Shri @RahulGandhi‘s #TelanganaJanaGarjana grand rally shall be voicing their shared aspirations, today. We congratulate CLP leader, Shri
@BhattiCLP on the completion of our 1360 km long Padayatra, today at Khammam. Several senior leaders will join the Congress party and strengthen the hands of the people. The Congress party is proud of the collective leadership of
@INCTelangana. Our blueprint for a new dawn in Telangana is ready. We are strongly committed to the development and progress of Telangana based on social justice and equity,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted on Sunday.
The Assembly elections are set to take place in December 2023.
