Congress leaders from Telangana, who arrived Hyderabad from Delhi, went in a rally from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport to Gun Park on Sunday. A large number of Congress workers participated in the rally. Senior leader V Hanumantha Rao flagged off the rally at the airport.
Ministers K Janareddy, DK Aruna, J Geetha Reddy, V Sunita Laxma Reddy, D Sridhar Babu and several MPs and MLAs participated in the rally and greeted the people along the route. Later, they paid tributes at the Telangana martyrs memorial.
All the Telangana Congress leaders praised AICC president Sonia Gandhi. Some called her a goddess, while others described her as a lioness for delivering Telangana.
Speaking on the occasion, Jana Reddy thanked AICC president Sonia Gandhi. He said Sonia was daring enough and took a bold decision to form Telangana, which even Indira Gandhi could not do. Jana Reddy said the Congress should win 10 Lok Sabha and 100 Assembly seats to develop Telangana. He said the sacrifices of martyrs helped formation of Telangana and added that they would erect a new memorial for martyrs.
Union minister Sarve Satyanarayana said the entire credit for formation of Telangana goes to Sonia. MP Madhu Yashki Goud said Sonia wanted them not to offend anyone and wanted to go together with all the people living in Telangana. He said Sonia promised to do justice to residuary Andhra Pradesh state.
Another MP Ponnam Prabhakar wanted the people of Telangana to boycott Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which never helped formation of Telangana. He wondered where were Telangana TDP leaders when TDP leaders from Seemandhra were conspiring against the formation of T-state. Ponnam said Sonia Gandhi acted as a lioness and took a decision in favour of T.
Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah described Sonia as “Telangana Talli”. MP Sircilla Rajaiah said Sonia took a historic decision. The formation of Telangana state would be dedicated to martyrs, he added.
Meanwhile, Telangana Congress leaders, during a meeting at Gandhi Bhavan, removed the photo of caretaker chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and placed Ghulam Nabi Azad’s photo in its place.