The visit of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to Tirupati to address a mega rally on February 22 is raising a lot of curiosity in the political observers, who are wondering as to what stand he would take on the Telugu Desam Party government in Andhra Pradesh headed by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Needless to say, the Congress party is pinning all its hopes on Rahul’s visit, which is expected to help the party retrieve its lost ground at least to some extent by taking up the special category status demand.
The Congress party is planning to hold the public meeting at SV University’s Tarakarama Stadium from where Narendra Modi had assured the people of AP that BJP would give special status for 10 years and promised building a world class capital city.
The single slogan for the rally is ‘Pratyeka Hoda Kavali Ante Rahul Ravali’ (If you want special status Rahul should come to power).
However, if the Congress has to get any mileage out of this public meeting, Rahul Gandhi will have to equally blame Naidu for not securing special category status to AP despite sailing with the Bharatiya Janata Party for four long years.
He has to raise the issue of Naidu accepting the special financial package and later taking a U-turn to demand special category status only for political gains.
Since the special category status has now become a sentimental issue, Rahul has to play this card in order to improve the Congress party’s position in the state. But that will not happen without him attacking Naidu.
However, it is unlikely that he will make any comments on Naidu and his government in the wake of the latest bonhomie between the two leaders.
And if he doesn’t, one doubts whether Rahul will impress the people by just targeting Modi.