After victories in K’taka & T’gana, Cong confident about Andhra: Kharge

On Himachal Pradesh, the Congress president said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre had ignored the repeated pleas of the state government and the MPs to declare the devastating Himachal floods as national calamity.

New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday chaired a meeting with the party leaders of Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh to discuss the 2024 Lok Sabha poll preparations.

Kharge expressed confidence that the ground situation had changed in Andhra Pradesh after the party’s victories in the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Telangana. “Everyone believes that the ground situation has drastically changed after government formation in Karnataka and Telangana,” Kharge said in a post on X, after presiding over two separate meetings held to discuss the party strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

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The two separate strategy meetings were attended, among others by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, besides the state unit chiefs and the in charges of both the states. Kharge said that every leader and worker is going to work hard and re-establish the bond, which the people of Andhra Pradesh once shared with the Congress party.

On Himachal Pradesh, the Congress president said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre had ignored the repeated pleas of the state government and the MPs to declare the devastating Himachal floods as national calamity.

However, he added, the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh had managed to mobilise resources at its own level to provide relief to people there. He said the Congress government was committed towards the welfare of the people of the state.

The meeting for Himachal Pradesh was attended among others by the Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Himachal Pradesh incharge Rajiv Shukla, state unit chief Pratibha Singh, deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri and party secretary Tajinder Singh Bittu. Sukhu said the entire state leadership expressed confidence that the party was in a position to win all the four Lok Sabha seats in the state.

He said, despite the step-motherly treatment by the BJP ruled centre, the state was fulfilling its promises besides handling the situation caused by the devastating floods.

The strategy meeting for Andhra Pradesh was attended among others by the state in charge Manickam Tagore, state unit chief GR Raju, former union minister M.M. Pallam Raju and others.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Tagore said, the Congress has extended an open invitation to all those who believe in the Congress ideology and have left over a period to come back. He also criticised the Central government for ignoring the state in the last ten years.