AP Congress in resurgent mode, to take on Modi

VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh Congress, which has been in a moribund state since the last General Elections, has at last begun showing signs of life. Pushing aside dark clouds of depression that had engulfed the party post its historic debacle at the hands of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in the state for committing the 'sin' of dividing the state, the party is now busy chalking out a course of action to remain alive among people.

At its first ever executive committe meeting of the party in Vijayawada, the APCC decided to target BJP at the Centre by collecting one crore signatures from Feb 6 and submit them to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to fulfill the promises that the UPA had made at the time of division of the state. 'The signature campaign will begin at Polavaram, the place where a major irrigation project is proposed to be constructed,' APCC president N Raghuveera Reddy said after the meeting.

All former Central and state minsters belonging to the Congress will reach Polavaram on the appointed day and after performing pooja to Godavari river, would begin collection of signatures.

This campaign will start simultaneously in all the 175 Assembly constituencies. 'Top leaders of the party will visit at least 40 to 50 Assembly segments in all the 13 districts to give fillip to the movement,' Raghuveera Reddy said.

If the absence of important leaders, including Chiranjeevi and Botcha Satyanarayana, dampened the spirit, Raghuveera Reddy did not show it. On the contrary, he said that no leader had lost interest in the party programmes and those that did not turn up had, in fact, pressing personal work and that they had told him over the telephone their inability to make it to the meeting. 'We are all together. Their absence does not make any difference since they are with us,' Raghuveera Reddy said.

The meeting, which went on for three hours at Andhra Ratna Bhavan, the new headquarters of AP Congress Committee, adopted four resolutions. Of them, the most important is to demand the Centre to accord special category status to AP.

The others are related to financial packages to North Andhra and Rayalaseema, location of Central institutions, execution of Polavaram Project works, construction of ports as well as international airports at Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati.

'Except for laying of foundation stone for IIM at Visakhapatnam, the government has not moved an inch in redeeming any of its promises,' Raghuveera Reddy said.

The other resolution adopted at the executive included constitution of committees at district, city, town, and mandal levels. By another, it was decided to complete membership drive by the end of July. It will commence in the first week of March.