Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Telangana leg of Congress bus yatra from today

By Our Special Correspondent

Hyderabad Dec. 9. The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee's `Praja Hita Yatra' is all set to begin in Telangana on Wednesday at Bhongir in Nalgonda district. The yatra had already covered, in two phases, coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions evoking good response. The third phase would be for five days as per the tentative schedule.

Senior leaders of the party, including Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy, the State party president, D.Srinivas, G.Venkataswamy, N.Janardhan Reddy, N.Bhaskar Rao, M.Satyanarayana Rao and V.Hanumantha Rao, will travel together.

The incharge of the party affairs in Andhra Pradesh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and All-India Congress Committee secretary, R.P.N.Singh, will accompany them.

The APCC has appealed to party workers and leaders to make the yatra a resounding success. The third phase of the yatra is bound to take an interesting turn, as it would encounter the issue of `Telangana sentiment' at some places from die-hard fans of the concept.

Leaders of the Congress Forum for Telangana who acknowledge that the TRS could mar the chances of the party are wary of the outcome of the yatra and have already appealed to party leaders of other regions not to queer the pitch for them further by issuing "any anti-Telangana statement".

They are also wary of the designs of the rivals to disrupt the yatra and have appealed to the cadres "not to fall prey to the machinations of the enemies proposing to disturb the Telangana yatra."

The CFT leaders appealed to all groups and parties waging a struggle for separate statehood to welcome the yatra as it would only help their cause. The Congress had accepted the ground realities and had announced the formation of a separate committee for the region, they argued.

The CFT leadership was committed to the cause and no one need suspect their intentions, they declared in response to the demand of the TRS president, K.Chandrasekhara Rao.

On the other hand, Mr. Srinivas and Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy held a meeting of senior leaders at the party headquarters on Tuesday to formulate the campaign strategy. A concerted effort would be made by the party to counter the campaign of the TRS in the region and to project the Congress as real alternative for people seeking change.

TRS demand

The TRS has demanded that the Congress first clarify whether or not it is for statehood for Telangana.

The TRS's general secretary, K.Dayanand, in a statement here said that before launching the yatra the Congress should make it clear; otherwise the people of Telangana would stop it. He said that the TDP had already clarified that it was for a united Andhra and the BJP stated that it was not on the NDA agenda.

Referring to the statement issued by Congress leaders that separate Telangana was possible only with the Congress, he said that several Congress leaders were elected under the agenda of Telangana in 1971-72 and since then the Congress had cheated the people.

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