After initial reluctance, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has finally agreed to visit Andhra Pradesh to rejuvenate the party leaders and the cadre.
According to the local Congress leaders, Rahul will address a big public meeting at Kurnool on September 18.
It will be Rahul’s public meeting to the state after the bifurcation and the first visit after becoming the party president.
For the Congress party, it will be the first big event ever since it was rejected by the people in 2014 elections. The party hopes to regain its strength at least marginally in 2019 elections.
Actually, Rahul’s public meeting is part of his all-India tour to campaign against the Rafael aircraft deal signed by the Narendra Modi government to benefit Anil Ambani, he cannot avoid talking about the bifurcation, the Congress role and also the need for special category status for AP.
The party hopes that with Rahul making an open announcement of his party’s support to the special category status, it will get back the much needed support of the people.
But, why Rahul did agree to come to Andhra so suddenly?
It was only 10 days ago he made it clear to the AP Congress leaders that he might not come to the AP at this stage, but would do it at an appropriate time.
However, he suddenly changed his mind because of the recent developments, which indicated that the ruling Telugu Desam Party is inclining towards an alliance with the Congress party at the national level.
So, when Rahul comes here, he would focus mostly on attacking Modi and special status to AP, rather than attacking Naidu government’s failures in the last four years.
For the record sake, APCC president N Raghuveera Reddy is saying that the Congress party would contest 2019 elections on its own in all 175 Assembly constituencies and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies.
