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.