Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Dr N Raghuveera Reddy on Tuesday appealed to his former colleagues to return to the Congress fold.
Addressing a press conference at Indira Bhavan here, Raghuveera Reddy asked the leaders, who quit the Congress over the issue of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, to rejoin the party. He alleged that both the Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress Party supported the division of Andhra Pradesh and gave letters to the Centre. However, now both the parties are spreading venom against the Congress party blaming it for the bifurcation, he alleged.
Raghuveera Reddy asked the party cadre in Seemandhra to reorganise itself and approach the masses explaining the advantages that the region got due to division. He said that the party would give preference to youth in allocation of tickets. He said that when the Congress party was in bad shape in post-emergency era, a new leadership emerged in 1978 elections. Stating that the conditions were quite similar, he appealed to the youth to come forward and accept the responsibilities in Congress party.
The APCC chief also announced the scheduled of bus yatra that he along with other leaders plans to launch on March 21. The bus yatra will cover all 13 districts of Seemandhra region from March 21st to 27th. It will cover Srikakulam and Vizianagarm on March 21, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari on March 22nd, West Godavari and Krishna on March 23, Guntur and Prakasam on March 24, Nellore and Chittoor on March 25, Kadapa on March 26 and Anantapur and Kurnool on March 27th.
Union Minister K Chiranjeevi, former PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana, former ministers Anam Ramnarayana Reddy, C Ramchandraiah and other leaders would participate in the bus yatra.