Sonia, Rahul invited to AP

New Delhi: APCC President N Raghuveera Reddy and former APCC Campaign Committee Chairman K Chiranjeevi, who came on summons from Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, met him in the morning and Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the evening. Both the leaders invited Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for a Workers Convention in Andhra Pradesh, sometime in July.

Interacting with mediapersons after the meetings, APCC President N Raghuveera Reddy said both the leaders responded positively. The venue will be decided in consultation with other people of the PCC. The Congress workers from the Mandal level upwards to the APCC would take part in that session, Raghuveera Reddy said.

Another meeting has been convened in Vijayawada on June 16-17, where all candidates, who contested elections and other leaders would be invited for a brainstorming session. The two-fold objective is to ascertain the reasons for the electoral debacle and drawing up a roadmap for the revival of the Congress in Andhra Pradesh.

Raghuveera Reddy said that the APCC had held review meetings in 11 districts and such meeting are due in two more districts, which will be done soon. However, the APCC leaders said that while an indepth study is on for the causes of defeat, a preliminary assessment was shared with the Congress High Command.

Primarily, the Congress failed to counter the powerful propaganda of the TDP and the YSRCP that it was the Congress that was responsible for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

The Congress could not convey it to the people that it was these parties that had agreed to the division of the State and that the Congress was the last to take decision on it.

The Congress was projected as the villain of the piece that ultimately harmed its electoral prospects. By the time the Congress leaders organized the Bus Yatra, it was too late in the day. Chiranjeevi and Raghuveera Reddy urged Congress President Sonia Gandhi to address a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure the implementation of all the assurances built into the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014. It was suggested that a panel should be set up as a watchdog to monitor the implementation of the assurances held out in the Act. Chiranjeevi greeted the people of Telangana on the fulfillment of their 60-year-old dream for the formation of Telangana.

He said he had spoken to both Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and to Telangana Minister K T Rama Rao. Both the Telugu-speaking States should cooperate and thrive harmoniously, he added.