Telangana Garjana Sabha in Khammam today to mark completion of Bhatti’s Padayatra
The People’s March Padayatra taken up by Congress Legisature Party leader Bhatti Vikramarka that concluded after 109 days in Khammam on Saturday has transformed it into another people’s revolutionary movement.
The success of Bhatti’s Padayatra from Adilabad to Khammam covering 1,360 km in 17 districts and 36 constituencies traversing through 750 villages exposing the failures of the BRS government and KCR’s false promises made Chief Minister KCR leave the confines of his farm house and reach out to people.
KCR who whiled away more than nine years without resolving the podu lands issue today distributed some pattas thanks to Bhatti’s Padayatra. The People’s March Padayatra has shaken the foundation of BRS government that had been ruling the Telangana State with a dictatorial attitude. It forced CM KCR, Ministers KTR, Harish Rao and other Ministers to launch damage control tours extensively, observers said.
For the Congress Party, Bhatti’s Padayatra has brought further energy into the cadre and evoked tremendous and spontaneous response from people fed up with the BRS rule. The CLP leader’s determined padaytra not withstanding the summer heat and unexpected downpours continued for 1,350 km though he had taken ill in between due to the strain and heat stroke.The overwhelming response to the Padayatra has become of a matter of worry and anxiety for rival parties.
With Bhatti’s padayatra changing the mood of the people and further improving the prospects of the Congress party, leaders of other political parties are now keen to join Congress Party. The stage has been set for Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Jupally Krishna Rao, Gurunath Reddy and other leaders joining the Telangana Jana Garjana public meeting being organised on July 2 to mark the completion of Bhatti’s Padayatra.
As Bhatti’s padayatra reminded people of successful padayatra by late Y S Rajasehar Reddy, people from grass root level are gearing up to bring Congress party back to power in the next elections as the party’s graph has gone up significantly in the last few months.
The significant feature of Bhatti’s padayatra is he refrained from talking about himself but explaining repeatedly what the Congress Party would do if it came to power demonstrating his political sincerity. Like late Rajasekhar Reddy, Bhatti had been listening to people’s woes and giving them hope and confidence that Indiramma Rajyam would come back to bring prosperity and happiness to every household in the State. He gave confidence to people that Congress Party and Congress government would work to alleviate their sufferings of the last 10 years.
Many political analysts have commented that Bhatti’s padayatra has brought back tribals, adivasis, weaker sections, minorities and downtrodden people back to Congress Party’s fold. After Karnataka’s elections and Bhatti’s padayatra , BRS and BJP lost their steam looking at people’s growing support to the Congress party. As the internal squabbles among Congress party leaders have come down and all of them coming together to work unitedly from the same platform , the perception has been deepening that Bhatti’s padayatra would catapult Congress party into power.
Bhatti’s padayatra went on in a humble and simple way and he made night halts in humble tents along with his fellow party workers who were walking with him and he ate with them. Since the start of Padayatra on March 16 from Pippiri village of Adilabad district, Bhatti celebrated festivals of all religions and even his birthday in the midst of people.
Bhatti’s Padayatra was inaugurated by AICC general Secretary and Congress Party Telangana Incharge Manik Rao Thakre and on March 19, Bhatti paid homage at the martyrs’ memorial at Indravelli. On April 14, Satyagraha sabha was held at Mancherial town as part of padayatra and AICC President Mallikarjun Khagre attended the successful meeting attended by lakhs of people as chief guest. Enroute his padayatra, Bhatti also visited several temples including Yadadri temple. Pylons were unveiled at Gummadipalli and Ponnekallu to mark important milestones of padayatra and huge public meetings at Mancheriaand Jadcherla.
Another noteworthy feature of Padayatra was joining of AICC and PCC leaders in the padayatra in some stretches to inspire and enthuse people about electing Congress party candidates in the next election to achieve the objectives of Telangana for which the State was created by the then UPA government by mobilising support of all party leaders.
AICC President Kharge, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvender Singh Such, TamilNadu CLP leader Selva Peruthugai, Chattisgarh Incharge MP Ranjitha Ranjan and others expressed their solidary to the Telangana CLP leader’s padayatra.
