The Telangana Congress has arranged around 150 sleeper buses to take between 6,000 and 8,000 cadres from the state to a November 1 rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan after South Central Railway declined the party’s request for special trains, according to a report by Deccan Chronicle.
The party had initially planned to transport at least 15,000 workers by special trains for the rally against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls and its demand for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Party leaders said the railway decision affected the original mobilisation target, prompting the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee to shift a large part of the travel plan to road transport.
Buses arranged by the Pradesh Congress Committee began leaving from various districts on Friday morning. The convoy reached Adilabad in the afternoon and was scheduled to proceed to Nagpur for an overnight halt. The buses were then expected to travel to Agra early on Saturday before reaching Delhi by Saturday night. Accommodation has been arranged for the cadres before the rally.
The mobilisation is being coordinated through the party’s district and constituency-level organisation. Ministers are supervising arrangements in their respective erstwhile districts, while MLAs and constituency in-charges are coordinating the movement of workers from the grassroots. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and some ministers were already in Delhi, while other ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs and senior leaders were expected to reach the national capital by Friday night.
The party said nearly 5,000 public representatives and senior leaders had booked flights. Several district- and constituency-level leaders chose regular trains, while the buses were assigned to a larger group of cadres travelling together. The change places the main burden of the mobilisation on a long-distance road movement involving multiple halts, accommodation arrangements and coordination across Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
The Congress high command has treated the rally as a major organisational event and appointed AICC general secretary Avinash Pande as the observer for mobilisation in Telangana. Pande has held meetings with party leaders to coordinate participation. The TPCC has also formed a five-member committee to oversee food and accommodation for the travelling cadres. The committee includes ministers Ponnam Prabhakar and Vakiti Srihari, and MPs Mallu Ravi, Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy and P Balaram Naik.
According to the report, Telangana Congress leaders are working to ensure that between 6,000 and 8,000 cadres reach Delhi despite the change in transport arrangements. The buses were expected to arrive in the national capital by Saturday night, ahead of the rally scheduled at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday.
