Congress expresses confidence of winning by-elections

Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana on Saturday expressed confidence that the Congress candidates would win in the by-elections to be held for 17 Assembly segments which would go for by-elections due to the disqualification of rebel MLAs.

Talking to media persons at Gandhi Bhavan, Botsa said that the Congress party would field its candidates from all the constituencies and would make collective efforts to win the by-elections. “The party will be collectively responsible for victory or defeat of candidates in the by-elections,” he said.

Botsa hoped that the Election Commission would issue notification for conducting the by-elections before the Presidential elections in July this year.

The PCC chief accused YSR Congress president Jagan Mohan Reddy of looting the State while misusing his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy's name during latter's tenure as the Chief Minister. “Now he will use YSR's name to get the sympathy votes in the by-elections,” he stated. He also condemned a section of media for describing the by-elections as a 'semi-finals' for the government.

Stating that the elections were a continuous process in the democracy, the PCC chief said that the voters would decide the fate of candidates in the by-elections.