Sonia Gandhi is set to visit Hyderabad on 23 November to campaign for the Congress for the upcoming Assembly elections in Telangana. Sonia will be landing in the state at the Begumpet airport by a special aircraft at around 5 pm on Friday. The UPA chairperson will then visit the Medchal constituency meeting venue where she will address a public meeting.
Although, Congress leaders in Telangana were of the thought that Sonia should campaign in Gajwel, which is TRS chief and caretaker chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s home ground. However, the central leadership decided that she should campaign in areas where the party has a stronghold and chances of winning can be improved with her presence.
The Telangana was formed under Sonia Gandhi’s leadership where the Congress Working Committee had agreed to the creation of a separate state of Telangana. However, caretaker CM KCR has been invoking Telangana pride in his election campaign speeches.
“We are expecting the political atmosphere to change in favor of the Congress once Sonia appeals to the people of Telangana to vote for the Congress. The people of Telangana are grateful of her fulfilling their decades-long dream of a separate state,” TOI reported.
The Congress is eyeing to bank on the sentiments of the people of the state and invoke their sense that it was Sonia who fulfilled their decade-long dream of statehood for Telangana.
The party thinks that the rural voters, especially the women and youth, feel disappointed by the TRS government, and will hence identify themselves with its campaign.
For the Congress, “vote for Sonia Gandhi” — who made the Telangana dream come true is going to be a major slogan for the campaign.
“We will urge people to vote for Sonia, who had put the party’s future at stake in Andhra Pradesh to keep her promise of a separate Telangana. She took a brave decision and did not succumb to the strong lobbying from Andhra leaders who are known to be aggressive,” reported, The Hindu.
The Congress is contesting the elections in a ‘grand’ alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which is led by N Chandrababu Naidu,Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI).
Recently, Naidu has been talking a lot of creating a united anti-BJP front by meeting various Opposition leaders.
Rahul Gandhi to Campaign in Telangana:
After the mother, son Rahul Gandhi will also campaign in the state from 28 to 29 November and again on 3 December. Rahul Gandhi had earlier campaigned in Telangana on 20 October and now he has proposed to hold two public meetings, in undivided Warangal district and the other in Karimnagar.
But it is still not all bright and shiny for the Congress party as K C Rao is constantly on attack on the grand old party. In fact the TRS chief’s move to dissolve the Assembly was most likely to avoid a clash with the general elections in 2019.
Telangana goes to polls on December 7 while the results will be announced on December 11 with the other 4 poll bound states.