Congress president Sonia Gandhi is addressing her first election rally in Telangana at Karimnagar on Wednesday.
She visited Hyderabad way back in 2009, first in connection with an election rally held in the city and later following the death of then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
This visit marks the fulfilment of the crucial election promise made to the people of Telangana in 2004 on the statehood issue though with much delay.
Karimnagar is an electoral battleground that stood by TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao when the latter resigned twice from this Lok Sabha constituency to prove through his re-election that the people's desire for separate statehood was strong as ever. It has emerged as a battleground yet again between the Congress and the TRS, as each is claiming full credit for the creation of Telangana state in a bid to win maximum number of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats.
Sensing the threat of a potential drift of voters under the influence of Sonia's campaign, KCR began his rallies a week ahead from Karimnagar. Congress leaders in Telangana are telling the voters in this region that but for Sonia Gandhi the separate state would have been a pipe dream for many more decades.
Ironically, KCR moved from Karimnagar to Mahabubnagar constituency in the 2009 elections and has now shifted to the Medak Lok Sabha seat in his home district. TRS has fielded former MP Vinod Kumar, who is from the neighbouring Warangal district, from the Karimnagar constituency. Former Union minister Ch Vidyasagar Rao is the BJP candidate while sitting Congress MP Ponnam Prabhakar is seeking re-election from here.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the BJP have entered into a pre-poll alliance in a bid to to put up a strong fight against the TRS and the Congress in Telangana and to fight the YSR Congress party in Seemandhra.
According to the reports, AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi is also coming tomorrow as the two are expected to address a couple of more rallies in the region on the same day.
The UPA government went ahead with the state bifurcation in spite of a stiff resistance from coastal Andhra leaders, losing some of the influential Congress leaders in the aftermath. The Congress is also expected to lose most of its electoral gains of the previous election in Seemandhra this time around.
She visited Hyderabad way back in 2009, first in connection with an election rally held in the city and later following the death of then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
This visit marks the fulfilment of the crucial election promise made to the people of Telangana in 2004 on the statehood issue though with much delay.
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As the Congress is vying to take full mileage from the state bifurcation in the current elections in Telangana, Karimnagar comes as a natural choice to launch the campaign by Sonia.
Karimnagar is an electoral battleground that stood by TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao when the latter resigned twice from this Lok Sabha constituency to prove through his re-election that the people's desire for separate statehood was strong as ever. It has emerged as a battleground yet again between the Congress and the TRS, as each is claiming full credit for the creation of Telangana state in a bid to win maximum number of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats.
Sensing the threat of a potential drift of voters under the influence of Sonia's campaign, KCR began his rallies a week ahead from Karimnagar. Congress leaders in Telangana are telling the voters in this region that but for Sonia Gandhi the separate state would have been a pipe dream for many more decades.
Ironically, KCR moved from Karimnagar to Mahabubnagar constituency in the 2009 elections and has now shifted to the Medak Lok Sabha seat in his home district. TRS has fielded former MP Vinod Kumar, who is from the neighbouring Warangal district, from the Karimnagar constituency. Former Union minister Ch Vidyasagar Rao is the BJP candidate while sitting Congress MP Ponnam Prabhakar is seeking re-election from here.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the BJP have entered into a pre-poll alliance in a bid to to put up a strong fight against the TRS and the Congress in Telangana and to fight the YSR Congress party in Seemandhra.
According to the reports, AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi is also coming tomorrow as the two are expected to address a couple of more rallies in the region on the same day.
The UPA government went ahead with the state bifurcation in spite of a stiff resistance from coastal Andhra leaders, losing some of the influential Congress leaders in the aftermath. The Congress is also expected to lose most of its electoral gains of the previous election in Seemandhra this time around.
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