Congress preparing for bypoll in Telangana

Hyderabad, Mar 10 (UNI) In the wake of the increasing ''Telangana Sentiment'', the ruling Congress is gearing up to contest the 16 Assembly constituencies and four Lok Sabha seats, which fell vacant after the resignation of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs and MPs recently.

According to Congress party sources here, Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has convened a meeting with ministers hailing from Telangana region to discuss the strategy for the coming by-elections.

A senior Congress leader and minister brought to Chief Minister's notice that the Congress was very weak in six out of the 16 constitutencies, where the party candidates hardly won twice since two decades.

Even as the Chief Minister has directed the ministers to highlight the development programmes taken up by the government in the bypolls, one of the ministers pointed out that 'the election was a 'litmus test' for the Congress in Telangana.

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