Ensure 10 lakh gathering for April 27 meeting, he tells party cadres

Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is understood to have pulled up key leaders for the low turnout of people witnessed at the party plenary held on Friday. He told them in no uncertain terms that public meeting slated for Monday should not have less than 10 lakh gathering; one lakh from each of the 10 districts.

After KCR’s orders, several leaders rushed to districts to hold discussions with respective units. It may be mentioned here that TRS leadership gave directions to leaders to mobilise not less than 300 delegates from each of the 119 assembly constituencies for the plenary.

However, there was low turnout contrary to initial expectations. According to sources, around 20,000 members attended the meeting, which was way off the mark. Also, the numbers dwindled in the post-lunch session with many staying outside and roaming around the premises of LB stadium, rather than sitting inside. With the ones inside the stadium also coming out early, empty seats were there for everyone to see.

As a result, KCR just limited his end speech to barely few minutes. Not only the media, even TRS leaders were caught off-guard with KCR’s decision not to make an elaborate speech. The CM seems to have lost interest since the crowd left much early than the closing time, which was announced as 7 pm, party insiders felt.

On the other hand, KCR took this issue seriously and summoned few leaders to his official residence on Saturday morning. He sought to know the reasons behind the poor handling of plenary affairs. The TRS president told them to make amends in the public meeting (scheduled for Monday) and make sure at least 10 lakh people turn up without fail.