The stage is set for the semi-finals in the run up to the big fight in 2014. The state is going to witness a series of elections for local bodies from the last week of June.

While preparing the party rank and file for the polls, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy announced the time frame for the local body elections on Wednesday at the state-level convention of the Congress party, held at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy stadium here. Elections to village panchayats will be held either in the last week of June or the first of week of July and municipal polls will be conducted either in the last week of July or the first week of August, followed by elections to Mandal Praja Parishads in the last week of August or first week of September.

He called upon party cadres to repeat the impressive victory in cooperative polls.

Asking his party cadres not to believe the surveys being conducted by various TV channels on the electoral outcome in the 2014 polls as they did not reflect the ground reality, Kiran Reddy said Congress held sway across the state even now.

“It is true that after ruling the state for nine years, we might face some anti-incumbency. However, if 10,000 votes go away because of the anti-establishment feeling, 20,000 votes will be added because of the new welfare schemes,” he said.

Sonia’s schemes

Responding to allegations that he is trying to boost his personal image by introducing new schemes, the chief minister said none of the schemes were conceived by him. “The schemes introduced by my predecessors like YS Rajasekhara Reddy and those being introduced by me have been conceived by our party supremo Sonia Gandhi. Neither me nor anybody can lay a claim for these schemes. I am just implementing these schemes as per the directive of madam Sonia,” Kiran Reddy said.

The chief minister criticised YSRC for claiming that all the welfare schemes, introduced during YSR’s rule were solely formulated by him. Referring to Arogyasri, the chief minister said contrary to the criticism of YSRC, 14 lakh surgeries were performed in the last three years, against 19 lakh surgeries in the five years of the previous regime. The budgetary allocation for the programme had been increased from `500 crore to `1,500 crore now, he added. On Congress leaders deserting the party to join YSRC, Kiran Reddy said it would not affect the party as only selfish leaders were leaving, while the whereas cadre is very much with the party.

PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana too fired a broadside at the YSRC, saying, “I wonder how the YSRC leadership shamelessly taking up campaign that Jagan has been kept in prison illegally, when everyone knows that he amassed wealth by looting the exchequer.” He warned people that if Jagan is voted to power, he would establish a “kleptocracy” in the state.

Finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy called Jagan a “financial terrorist” who looted public money.