TPCC Chief launches Congress Digital Membership Drive in Telangana

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & MP A. Revanth Reddy expressed confidence that the Congress would achieve the target of enrolling 30 lakh members from Telangana State as part of the party’s nationwide membership drive.

The membership was launched at Kodangal on Thursday on the occasion of the birthday of AICC President Sonia Gandhi. AICC leader Praveen Chakravarty, TPCC leaders H. Venugopal, Deepak John, Shiv Sena Reddy, Ch. Kiran Reddy and other leaders were present on the occasion.

Before launching the drive, the Congress leaders paid rich tributes to Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) Gen. Bipin Rawat and 12 others who were killed in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.

Addressing the meeting, Revanth Reddy explained the significance and importance of the date ‘9th December’. He said it was on the same day in 2009, when the then Congress-led UPA Government announced the formation of Telangana.

He said despite several obstacles and severe opposition by many leaders within and outside the party and government, Congress President Sonia Gandhi decided to grant statehood for Telangana region. “Sonia Gandhi Ji wanted to put an end to the era of discrimination and injustice.

She wanted the Telangana youth to prosper on par with others without any difficulties. Therefore, she turned the 60-year-old dream of Telangana into a reality and this was announced for the first time on 9th December, 2009,” he said.

He said that the main objection of Telangana formation could not be achieved as TRS Govt failed to fulfill the aspirations of common people. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao treated Telangana as his personal fiefdom and worked only for the benefit of his family and friends.

“Sonia Gandhi granted statehood for Telangana with a clear objection of empowering people. It is the duty of Congress party to ensure that those aspirations of people of Telangana are fulfilled,” he said.

“I gave a commitment to Congress president Sonia Gandhi that we will enroll 30 lakh members in the State as I was confident of having the backing of the entire cadre at the booth level. Unlike in the past, the membership drive will be completely online, transparent and without any errors.

There will be one enroller for each of over 34,000 polling booths across the State. Our intention is to take the message of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to each and every village, hamlet and locality through digital mode,” he said.

Revanth  said instead of arranging a big meeting to launch the membership drive, he picked a small Dalit basti in Kondangal to give a feel of how the membership drive should be taken up at the booth level. He also informed that everyone joining the Congress party as a member would get a life insurance cover of Rs. 2 lakh.

“By joining the party, they are becoming a part of the Congress family. It is the responsibility of Sonia Gandhi at the national level and my responsibility at the State level to ensure the well-being of all party members.

Therefore, the party has decided to give insurance cover of Rs. 2 lakh each to all 30 lakh members who will be enrolling in the current membership drive,” he said.

The TPCC Chief exhorted the party cadre to take up the membership drive with utmost sincerity. “The enrollment of 30 lakh members will not only strengthen the party, but it will help us in achieving the real objective of formation of Telangana,” he said by adding that the success of membership drive would help the Congress in winning the next elections.

“Telangana will get Soniamma Rajyam after next elections and it will bring prosperity to all sections of the society as it happened during Indiramma Rajyam,” he said.

He recalled the role played by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in bringing the Information Technology revolution. He said Rajiv Gandhi introduced computers and initiated the digital literacy programme.

As a result, he said India has advanced so much that today four top tech companies in the world are headed by Indians.

Elaborating on why he picked Kodangal to launch membership drive, Revanth Reddy said that Kodangal was once a part of Gulbarga district in erstwhile Hyderabad State.

He said it is just 10 km away from Gulbarga constituency, which was represented by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. He said nearly 30-40% of people in Kodangal speak Kannada.

He said he had no idea of where Kodangal was located when he was given a ticket to contest Assembly elections in 2009. “People of Kodangal constituency are so lovely that they ensure my victory with a margin of over 7,000 votes after a campaign of just 14 days.

They again elected me with a majority of 15,000 votes in the 2014 elections,” he said. Earlier, Praveen Chaktravarty praised the pace of membership drive in Telangana. He said Telangana was emerging as a model in the entire country in taking up the membership drive of the Congress party. He expressed confidence that the Kodangal constituency would emerge as a model for Telangana State.