Congress President Rahul Gandhi will on September 18 address a grand public meeting in Andhra Pradesh, which will go to polls in 2019. The meeting will be held in Rayalaseema district’s Kurnool.
Rahul is also expected to interact with students and will be paying homage to veteran Congress leaders Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy and Nilam Sanjiva Reddy before addressing a public meeting on September 18.
The Congress party suffered a body blow in the state in the elections held in 2014, after the bifurcation. The party, which was in power before the state was divided, failed to bag even a single seat, and many of its candidates left to join either the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) or the YSR Congress Party.
The Congress has seemingly chosen Kurnool to launch its revival in the state, given how Rayalaseema was once a bastion for the party.
The major planks for all the parties in the state is the accordance of Special Category Status to post-bifurcation Andhra Pradesh and the implementation of the promises in the AP Reorganisation Act of 2014, which promised a steel plant in Kadapa, railways projects and the development of other infrastructure in the state.
AP Congress Vice-President N Tulasi Reddy, speaking to TNM, said, “Rahul affirms the party decision to accord Special Status to Andhra Pradesh. After coming to power in 2019, this is the first thing he will do. He will also make announcements on loan waivers for farmers and the minimum support price, along with things that were promised in the AP Reorganisation Act.”
Earlier in March, the AICC (All India Congress Committee) adopted a resolution in favour of Special Category Status.
There are rumours that Congress may join hands with the TDP after AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu shared the stage with Rahul during the swearing-in of Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy. However, neither party has confirmed anything yet. “As of now, there hasn’t been any discussion on alliances as far as AP is concerned. Our in-charge (Oommen Chandy) has said that our alliance is with the people of the state first,” added Tulasi Reddy.
While AP Congress Affairs in-charge Oommen Chandy has stated there won’t be an alliance in the state, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Raghuveera Reddy had told TNM that “it was still too early to decide”.