Hyderabad, October 02: Determined to regain the lost ground in Telangana belt, the Congress high command has apparently given the go-ahead to the party leaders in the region to begin the process of going to the rescue of those who died for T-cause from tomorrow.
Though officially it has not been declared as a Congress programme it has the backing of Sonia Gandhi. The party does not want to own the programme lest it might rankle the leaders in the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema belt that it was siding with Telangana protagonists.
The Congress leaders, including MPs, MLAs and ministers are pooling resources to provide Rs 1 lakh as relief to the families of those who died for Telangana cause. The first programme will be held tomorrow in Karimnagar, the ground zero for Telangana movement. Later, it will be held in the remaining nine districts in Telangana belt.
The party has identified 65 families to provide relief at a function to be held at Indira Bhavan in Karimnagar. “If any family is inadvertently left out, we will consider their case too,” Congress MPs’ Forum convenor Ponnam Prabhakar told Express over the phone.
After receiving a debilitating blow in the byelections in the region in July, the party remained a lame duck except for the lofty professions of the party leaders that they alone would be able to deliver Telangana.
In fact, the Congress leaders believe that after losing the byelections, the slide in its image has not stopped and is continuing and in contrast, the TRS has emerged stronger with each passing day. Not a day passes without admission of new members into the party by party chief K Chandrasekhar Rao in Telangana districts. Though most of the cadre are from the Telugu Desam Party, the signal that the TRS is growing stronger is not lost on them.
Another reason why the Congress leaders in the region want to take up the programme early is to steal a march over the TRS since except making promises of delivering Telangana, the party has not done anything to help the victims of Telangana cause. This is the area where the Telangana Congress leaders want to concentrate on, to win the hearts of the people and tell them that their commitment to the cause is unshakable. “The gesture is a demonstration of our commitment to Telangana,” Prabhakar said.
–Agencies