Hyderabad: Congress president Rahul Gandhi would address women Self-Help Groups, students and youth, entrepreneurs and others in separate events during his visit to the city on 13 and 14 August, a senior Congress leader said.
He would arrive here 13 August and interact with women SHGs at nearby convention centre, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters here today.
The SHGs, numbering about 70 lakh, received encouragement during the previous Congress regime, which was absent under the present TRS government, he alleged.
The TRS government owes Rs 2,000 crore to the women SHGs as on today, he claimed. The state Congress has promised various sops to women SHGs, including grant of Rs one lakh to each of the six lakh groups towards seed capital.
The alleged rise in atrocities against women in the country, the pending women’s reservation bill and absence of women in the state council of ministers in Telangana are also expected to figure at the meeting.
TPCC is wooing the substantial number of voters from Andhra Pradesh, who reside in Hyderabad and its neighbourhood. After the interaction, Gandhi would attend a meeting at Serilingampalli area here, where he and state Congress leaders would speak on issues of Andhra Pradesh natives, Reddy said.
These people, living in Telangana for decades, did not vote for Congress in 2014 due to several reasons, he said. On 14 August, Gandhi would take part in a tele-conference with 31,600 booth committee presidents, mandal and district Congress presidents and also state unit office bearers (“the whole Congress family in Telangana“), Reddy said.
He would then interact with media editors and bureau chiefs for an hour at the hotel where he would be staying. The event would be conducted by the Press Club of Hyderabad.
Later Gandhi would address about 150 young industrialists and CEOs from Telangana and Andhra, he said. The Congress President would pay homage at “Telangana martyrs memorial” (in memory those who sacrificed their lives for the cause of separate Telangana) and meet party workers and small businessmen from Goshamahal assembly constituency.
Gandhi would then proceed to a public meeting for students and unemployed youth at Saroornagar stadium, where the ‘unkept promises’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to provide massive number of jobs and other related issues would figure, Reddy said.
He will leave for Delhi by 8.30 that night. Asked about the proposed meeting of minorities here, Reddy claimed that those managing the ground where it was to have taken place initially agreed to give permission, but expressed inability “under pressure from some quarters.”
Gandhi’s visit to Telangana has been planned once a month in the run-up to simultaneous Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemby elections in 2019, Reddy said, adding that the proposed programmes would be organised in those visits.
AICC in charge of Congress affairs in Telangana R C Khuntia alleged that the ruling TRS and MIM fear Gandhi’s visit. “Why are KCR and MIM afraid of Rahulji?… KCR does not want the meeting (in area of Muslim minorities) to take place,” he said.
