Cong's new Telangana in-charge stresses on unity, discipline ahead of polls

On his first visit to Hyderabad after being appointed as All India Congress Committee (AICC) incharge for Telangana, he held a series of meetings with party leaders on Sunday to review the preparedness for by-elections to one seat each of Assembly and Council.

Tagore also reviewed the party's preparations for the coming elections to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and also other urban local bodies in Warangal and Khammam.

He stressed the need for unity and discipline among the party cadre to win the coming electoral battles. He asked the party leaders to prepare a plan for massive campaigning in Dubbaka Assembly constituency, where by-elections are likely to be held next month.

Tagore suggested that an incharge be appointed for every two villages to ensure that all villages are covered during the campaign

Manickam, who arrived here on Saturday to grand welcome by the party leaders, also held a meeting with core committee members including state Congress chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, working presidents A. Revanth Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar and AICC secretaries Bose Raju and Sreenivasan.

The central leader wanted the state unit to actively participate in the protest against the new farm legislation. He also called for exposing ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which supported all controversial moves of Modi government in the past and has now distanced itself from farm Bills.

The by-election to Dubbaka has been necessitated by the sudden death of TRS incumbent Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy. The ruling party is likely to field his widow Sujatha.

In 2018, Ramalinga Reddy had won the seat with a margin of 62,500 votes. Congress party's M. Nageshwar Reddy had finished second.

This time, TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has directed his party cadre to ensure the party's victory by a margin of one lakh votes. TRS has already launched the campaign with finance minister T. Harish Rao reaching out to voters with extensive tours to villages.

The by-election to the MLC seat from Nizamabad Local Authorities is scheduled on October 9. The by-poll has been necessitated by disqualification of R. Bhupathi Reddy after he defected to Congress from TRS ahead of 2018 Assembly elections.