Botsa, Chiranjeevi Team up For Zonal Meetings

PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana and new-arrival into Congress, Chiranjeevi, are reported to hold zonal meetings in Ananthapur, Kurnool, Visakhapatnam and Guntur to strengthen the party. Mr Satyanarayana admitted that the Congress was having some coordination problems in the districts and hoped that they would be overcome these soon. He announced that starting from September 18, he and Mr Chiranjeevi would jointly undertake district tours and conduct zonal meetings.

The PCC president on Thursday criticised the YSR Congress leaders for repeatedly claiming that all Congress MLAs had won elections due to YSR's image and his portrait. "Let us not belittle the contribution of a great leader like Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, if you (YSR Congress) say that 155 MLAs won because of his photo, it was also a fact that the same number of party candidates lost because of that. So let us not go into these aspects," he said.

Mr Satyanarayana also said that several Congress leaders had won the polls due to the Sonia Gandhi factor and her photo. He added that the Congress had come to power a number of times in the past without mentioning YSR or showing his photo. "We should not forget the facts or distort them," he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Chiranjeevi, after performing Ganesh Puja at the former headquarters of the erstwhile Praja Rajyam confirmed that he along with the PCC chief are going to conduct zonalk meetings in several districts together. He also said that wisdom would prevail on the 26 MLAs who had resigned and that they would return to the party fold.