Hyderabad: Telangana Congress president Mahesh Kumar Goud on Thursday launched the ‘Janahita Padayatra’, a state-wide outreach drive initiated on the directive of AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge to gather grassroots-level feedback from party workers and the public.
Launching the march in Parigi, Goud said Kharge had instructed Congress leaders to remain among the people and assess on-ground realities beyond electoral success. “Coming to power is not the end. Khargeji wants us to stay with the people and work for their welfare,” he said.
Goud said the Congress government would implement all six poll guarantees and had already made progress on key promises. “People trusted us. We will deliver,” he said.
AICC Telangana in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan, who joined the yatra alongside several state leaders, said the government had started schemes such as free bus travel for women and fine rice distribution through ration shops within months of assuming office. The padayatra, she said, was being led by the TPCC president and aimed to deepen public engagement.
Natarajan cited Rahul Gandhi’s call for caste-based quotas proportionate to population and said Telangana had passed legislation to extend 42% reservations to Backward Classes. She urged party cadres to join upcoming protests in New Delhi demanding that the Centre enact the BC Bill.
Ministers D Sridhar Babu and Konda Surekha, along with several MLAs, participated in the yatra’s opening day. Addressing the gathering, Sridhar Babu hit back at critics who questioned the need for padayatras by sitting ministers. “They don’t understand its purpose. This is about connecting governance with the ground,” he said.
He defended the phased rollout of manifesto promises, citing free travel, ration cards, integrated schools, Indiramma housing, and the Rythu Bharosa scheme under which ₹9,000 crore had been credited to farmers in nine days.
Sridhar Babu accused the BJP and BRS of blocking the BC Bill in Parliament despite its passage in state Assemblies. “If you have no objection, why not back it in Delhi?” he said, calling their silence a deliberate snub to backward classes.
