Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Y.S. Sharmila will lead a ‘Chalo Secretariat’ protest on February 22 “to demand justice for the unemployed youth and the student community in the State”, said Congress Working Committee member and former APCC president Gidugu Rudra Raju.
Addressing a press conference at Andhra Ratna Bhavan on February 20, Mr. Rudra Raju accused Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy of betraying the unemployed youth in the State by not keeping his poll promise of releasing a job calendar every year and filling all vacant posts through Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission if voted to power.
He said the Congress would organise a massive public meeting in Anantapur on February 26, which will be addressed by All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge and AICC in-charge for Andhra Pradesh, Manickam Tagore. The meeting will highlight the failures of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government in achieving Special Category Status (SCS) and other promises made to the State in the A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014, he said. Thereafter, the party would organise public meetings beginning in Visakhapatnam to protest against privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, then in Guntur region in support of the demand that Amaravati be retained as the capital of the State, and later in Jangareddygudem to highlight the neglect of the crucial Polavaram and other irrigation projects.
These meetings would be addressed by the Chief Ministers of Telangana and Karnataka as well as AICC leaders Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, he said.
Election manifesto
Mr. Rudra Raju said former Union Minister and chairman of the party’s State Manifesto Committee, in coordination with Central Manifesto Committee member Koppula Raju, would soon come up with a pro-poor party manifesto. He said the district tours, the public meetings and the rachcha banda meetings held by Mr. Sharmila had evoked tremendous public response and had filled the party cadres with renewed enthusiasm across the State.
Stating that the Congress would work with like-minded parties in the elections, he said that Ms. Sharmila would preside over an all-party meeting, scheduled to be held at Andhra Ratna Bhavan on February 23.
Replying to a reporter’s query on Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, who had quit the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and joined the Congress party earlier this year, only to go back to the YSRCP again, Mr. Rudra Raju said only leaders who believed in the principles and ideologies of the Congress, would stay in the party. “Mr. Ramakrishna Reddy had voluntarily joined the Congress. Why he decided to return to the YSR Congress party, only he will be able to explain,” he said.
A poster of ‘Chalo Secretariat” was released on the occasion. Former Rajya Sabha MP and APCC media cell chairman Thulasi Reddy, working presidents Janga Gowtham and Sunkara Padmasree, Seva Dal chairman Yalamanda Reddy, BC Cell chairman M. Venkat Rao and Vijayawada city unit president Naraharisetty Narasimha Rao were present.
