A 'Samaikyandhra political party' is taking shape and has Kiran Kumar Reddy written all over it. Flexi banners and posters have sprung up overnight across the 13 districts of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, including cities such as Vijayawada, heralding the arrival of the political outfit. Over the next few days, 15 lakh youth wearing T-shirts proclaiming ‘Jai Samaikyandhra’ are scheduled to spring up and the entire Seemandhra region is to witness a simultaneously orchestrated ‘Run’ for keeping the state united in the first week of February. The final step to the birth of the new party will be Kiran parting ways with the Congress and leading the Jai Samaikyandhra campaign.
Pointing to Kiran Kumar Reddy, the flexi banners and posters say ‘Samaikyandhra Mana Vidanam, Jai Samaikyandhra Mana Ninadam’ (United Andhra Is Our Policy, Jai Samaikyandhra Is Our Slogan). The CM had uttered these very words while intervening in the debate on the draft Telangana Bill in the assembly last Friday. The banners and posters also have images of Burgula Ramakrishna Rao (last chief minister of Hyderabad state who had signed on the merger agreement), Potti Sriramulu (who sacrificed his life seeking the formation of a separate Andhra state) and Telugu Talli. All of these were splashed in saffron, yellow and green colours in the backdrop of a map of Andhra Pradesh.
Sources said orders have been placed for 15 lakh T-shirts with a garment unit on the outskirts of Vijayawada and that wall posters on a massive scale are being churned out from a printing press in Rajahmundry.
Local Congress leaders were agog with speculation that the flexi banners and posters are the handiwork of Vijayawada Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal. When asked about the new political party, Lagadapati told INN Live: “I cannot speak on the subject. CM Kiran Kumar Reddy is the right person to elaborate on it.” The MP is presently busy performing the last rites of his father.
The erection of flexi boards and posters is said to be the first step in the formation of the Samaikyandhra political party and is to be followed by many programmes. About 800 campaign vehicles have been pressed into service to criss-cross the Seemandhra region and distribute campaign literature to the people. “A United Andhra Pradesh Run is being planned in the first week of February. It will be held at the same time in all the 13 districts and the date for the event will be announced after January 23,” a source in the thick of things told INN Live.
Noted gazal singer Gazal Srinivas, an associate of the Vijayawada MP, is to lead the dozens of cultural troupes that will propagate the idea of the new party. “The whirlwind campaign across the Seemandhra region will go on till the Telangana Bill is introduced in Parliament in mid-February,” a source revealed.
According to sources in the CM camp, the campaign will culminate in the announcement of the new party by Kiran on the day or the day after Parliament passes the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Bill-2013 in February. “As speculated earlier, Kiran will not do anything drastic after January 23, the deadline given to the assembly to return the Bill to the Centre. Kiran will seek an extension of the deadline by writing a letter to the President. If rejected, that too will be used to create a feeling of injustice to the people of Seemandhra,” they said.
Along with Lagadapati, his MP colleagues Vundavalli Arunkumar, G V Harshakumar, TG Venkatesh and Rayapati Samabasiva Rao, state minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao and Kiran’s family members are also deeply involved in the campaign to launch the party. “A committee to coordinate the activities will be set up in each mandal. This will become the party committee once the chief minister announces the party,” the sources said.
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