The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : A challenging task: Congress

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Thursday, Mar 13, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

A challenging task: Congress

B.V.S. Bhaskar

Party bigwigs striving to make ‘Rythu Mahotsavam’ a success

Jaggampeta (East Godavari): The Congress has taken AICC president Sonia Gandhi’s public meeting here on March 14 as a challenge as it is trying to mobilise at least four lakh people from the district and a few thousands from West Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts.

Being held after the UPA Government announced a massive loan waiver to medium and small farmers, party circles says that is the reason why the Chief Minister christened the meeting ‘Rythu Mahotsavam’. The party intends to explain to the farmers how much they will benefit from the waiver. The party also plans to launch a campaign for the by-elections from Jaggampeta.

“This is going to be a farmers’ meeting as well as a platform for launching the campaign,” says Minister for Housing Botcha Satyanarayana, who has been camping in the district from the last five days. District in-charge Minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy, Union Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju, Mr. Satyanarayana and his Cabinet colleagues Gollapalli Suryarao, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Konatala Ramakrishna, Pilli Subashcandra Bose and J. Rammohana Rao are monitoring the arrangements on a day-to-day basis.

There is widespread speculation on who would translate Ms. Gandhi’s speech. Since the time of the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, Rajahmundry MP Vundavelli Aruna Kumar has been the chosen one to do the honours. But, his recent remarks against B.R. Ambedkar and the widespread protests that they attracted seem to be working against him.

Though he apologised for his remarks in public, speculation is rife on whether he would be allowed to do so, particularly after he could not get an audience for the first time with Ms. Gandhi recently.

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