Rahul Gandhi’s tour to stoke Special sentiment?

Tirupati: The Congress party is pinning all its hopes on the visit of Rahul Gandhi on February 22. The party hopes that this will help in igniting the sentiment of special category status and help the party in retrieving some of the lost ground.

Rahul Gandhi, it is learnt, will visit Tirumala by foot before addressing the public meeting at Tirupati. Congress party proposes to hold the public meeting at SV University’s Tarakarama Stadium from where Narendra Modi had assured the people of AP that BJP would give special status for 10 years and promised building a world class capital city.

As a prelude to this meeting, the APCC seems to have chosen Tuesday as the day for launching ‘Bharosa Yatra’. This march would reach Tirupati on February 22. It appears that the party wants to try its fortunes with one single slogan ‘Pratyeka Hoda Kavali Ante Rahul Ravali’ (If you want special status Rahul should come to power).

Since SCS has now become an issue of sentiment and all parties are vying with each other to cash in on it, the Congress too seems to be trying to wean away some of its original vote bank which had migrated to YSRCP in the post-bifurcation scenario. The party expects that this meeting will improve its position in the state.

It is trying to mobilise and galvanise all the residual rank and file to ensure that the meeting becomes a success. Some of them even feel that instead of a public meeting it would have been better if the leadership had planned for road shows.

Speaking to The Hans India, former MP from Tirupati Chinta Mohan made it clear that their intention was to give confidence and assurance to the people that Congress party was with them always and will help the state by all means, including giving SCS.

The Congress party is planning to mobilise about 50,000 people the meeting. DCC president Venugopal Reddy said they had applied for necessary permissions from the authorities for public meeting and roadshow.