HYDERABAD/KARIMNAGAR: In order to reconnect with the farmers, the state Congress started Rachabanda programme across the state on Saturday. This follows former AICC president Rahul Gandhi’s suggestion to party leaders to go to villages and explain the Warangal Declaration to farmers.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy formally launched the programme at Akkampet, the native place of Telangana ideologue late Prof K. Jayashankar. Revanth Reddy interacted with farmers and people in the village and had community lunch with them.
Speaking on the occasion, Revanth Reddy said his desire to see the birthplace of Prof. Jayashankar, who had showed a path for achieving statehood, had brought him to Akkampet but was disappointed at the backwardness of the village. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had not installed a single statue of Prof. Jayashankar in his native place, he pointed out. The TRS government was successful in removing the memory of Prof. Jayashankar, he said.
On coming to power, the Congress would adopt Akkampet which has a population of more than 5,000 and make it into a new revenue village and turn it into a model for others, he said and appealed to the people to “bury” Chandrashekar Rao and TRS leader Madhusudhana Chary who had promised to establish a Jayashankar Smriti Vanam during the upcoming elections.
“I am promising in front of Pochamma Thalli goddess and sitting underneath the banyan tree that the Congress will beat KCR with slippers and dethrone him,” he said. The Congress would form the government in the state after 12 months and strictly implement the Warangal Declaration for the wellbeing of the farming sector, he added.
Earlier, Revanth Reddy offered special prayers to the presiding deities at Agrahampahad where mini Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara is held every two years simultaneous to the Medaram Jatara. He went on a padayatra along with other party leaders from Agrahampahad to Akkampet.
Revanth Reddy said he was ready to participate in the movement against the state government’s land pooling scheme and in support of farmers to protect their lands. Later, Revanth Reddy visited all the colonies in the village and interacted with the people.
CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka explained to farmers the Warangal Declaration in Nedunur village in Kandukur mandal of Ranga Reddy district, and said Rs 2 lakh crop loans would be waived at one go when the party came to power. He said each farmer had incurred around Rs 5 lakh debt as the government had failed to implement its crop loan waiver.
Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and former PCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah took part in Rachabandas in Suryapet and Siddipet districts respectively. They said the Congress would come to power both at the Centre and in the state and bring back Indiramma Rajyam.
Earlier, Congress leaders paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 31st death anniversary. Bhatti Vikramarka along with former PCC president V. Hanumantha Rao garlanded the statue of Rajiv Gandhi at Panjagutta Circle. Later, Congress leaders offered floral tributes to the portrait of Rajiv Gandhi here at the Gandhi Bhavan.
