TG Cong races to set up party panels before local body polls

HYDERABAD: The Congress party has decided to complete the process of constituting party committees from the village to the district level before going for local body polls.

PCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud, chairing a virtual meeting with AICC in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan on Wednesday, instructed district in-charges and other key leaders to ensure that party committees from the village to the district level are constituted by the end of this month.

Mahesh Goud also instructed that details of party assets be submitted without delay. He said the formation of gram, mandal, and district committees must be completed and reports sent by the end of this month.

He also announced that the second phase of the ‘Janahita Padayatra’ would begin on August 24 and urged party ranks to ensure large-scale public participation. He stressed the need to widely publicise the development and welfare programmes being implemented by the Congress government under Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.

As part of the nationwide campaign against alleged ‘vote theft’ raised by the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, against the BJP-led Election Commission, he detailed a three-phase movement against the alleged irregularities. The first phase will feature candlelight rallies at district headquarters on August 14, with participation from MPs, MLAs, MLCs, state and district executives, leaders of affiliated associations, and block and mandal presidents.

The second phase, from August 22 to September 7, will include large demonstrations in the state capital and major cities, along with ‘padayatras’ and vehicle rallies highlighting the BJP’s alleged role in vote rigging. The final phase, from September 15 to October 15, will see a month-long signature campaign to collect five crore signatures against ‘vote theft’, carried out through door-to-door outreach. Mahesh Goud called on leaders at all levels to ensure massive public mobilisation in each phase of the movement. Ministers Ponnam Prabhakar and Adluri Laxman Kumar, along with District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents and district in-charges, attended the virtual meeting.