VICTORY BEAT?: Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy beating the traditional `nagara' at his camp office in Hyderabad on Thursday to kick off the campaign as Minister Sabita Indra Reddy looks on.

HYDERABAD: The ruling Congress launched the second phase of its campaign for the forthcoming panchayat elections in the State with APCC president K. Keshava Rao formally embarking on `Grama Bheri' — a door-to-door campaign — from Anakapalle in Visakhapatnam district on Thursday.

Simultaneously, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy signalled the mood in the party by beating the traditional `nagara', a giant drum titled as `Vijaya Bheri' at his camp office here this morning.

The Congress stepped into the election mode from May 14 itself, the day it celebrated completion of two years in power as a special plenary. The APCC president had called it a special plenary to discuss "panchayat elections" too.

The Chief Minister, on the other hand, began interacting with Ministers and the DCC presidents from May 21 holding tele-conferences with them. This exercise too began with a telephone call to Mines Minister Sabita Indra Reddy from whose Assembly constituency, Chevella, he had launched his `padayatra' and many other programmes in the past. It was more an exercise at taking a SWOT analysis of the party.

Waiting for poll schedule

He plans to repeat the exercise with the MLAs and others, after the announcement of the election schedule by spending two hours a day interacting with them.

As Dr. Reddy has announced that he would not take part in the campaign directly just as he did for the municipal elections last year, Dr. Keshava Rao has taken upon himself the task of meeting the voters through "Grama Bheri".

Dr. Reddy appealed to party workers and leaders to shed complacency and work for the victory of the party candidates. All the candidates should be selected locally and elected without fail, he said.

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