HYDERABAD: With both the Congress and BJP staking claim to the Parade Ground for holding their respective public meetings on September 17, the venue is gradually becoming a matter of prestige for both parties.
The Congress, led by TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy, applied for permission from the defence ministry three days ago to host a public meeting at Parade Ground on September 17, which is to be attended by top leaders of the party, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge. The grand old party has also outlined plans to unveil five ‘guarantees’ as part of its campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections.
On the other side, the BJP State unit is also eyeing Parade Ground for its “Telangana Liberation Day” celebrations.
State BJP president G Kishan Reddy said that the “Liberation Day” celebrations would be officially organised by the Union government and hence it wants the Parade Ground as the venue for its event.
Kishan said that last year too, the party celebrated Telangana Liberation Day at the Parade Ground. The event was conducted as part of the Centre’s “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” and attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
With this, Parade Ground as the venue has become the focal point of heated arguments between the Congress and BJP.
The BJP says that since the Union government is celebrating Liberation Day officially, it has to give precedence to defence ministry-sanctioned programmes. The party also says that it plans to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Amit Shah to the event.