HYDERABAD: The state unit of Congress is hoping to win at least 14 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. After attending the first preparatory meeting for Lok Sabha elections convened by the AICC in Delhi on Thursday, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy exuded confidence that the grand old party would bag 13 or 14 seats.
AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and AICC general secretary KC Venugopal convened the meeting, where the Lok Sabha coordinators were given a PowerPoint presentation on the Congress war room for Lok Sabha polls. The AICC leaders gave direction to the coordinators on how to work for the Lok Sabha polls. Endowments Minister Konda Surekha said that the party directed them to win over the “neutral” voters to their side besides concentrating on the traditional vote bank.
The AICC directed the state leaders to focus on south Telangana and to ensure that the party wins all the seats in that region. “The cadre are in a jubilant mood after the Congress was voted to power in the state. Continuing with the same enthusiasm, the party will try to win the maximum number of seats in the Lok Sabha polls,” Surekha said.
Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar said that during the meeting they chalked out a strategy to be adopted in the polls. “People want to see the Congress regaining power at the Centre. We will work to win all the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state,” Prabhakar said.
Claiming that the BRS and BJP would only be competing for the second and third places, he said that if the Congress is in power at the Centre, the state would get more funds.He alleged that the BRS government pushed the state financial situation into doldrums, he said: “If the Congress wins all the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, it would be able to implement more welfare schemes, besides the six guarantees it promised to implement in the state.”