Congress poll bugle in Telangana to be sounded by Rahul Gandhi on July 2

Hyderabad: Rahul Gandhi, a leader of the Congress, will speak to a crowd in Khammam on Sunday to sound the poll horn for his party ahead of the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections. At the event, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka's "padayatra," the leader of the Congress State Legislature Party (CLP), will come to an end.

Gandhi will felicitate Vikramarka, who began his foot march close to Adilabad and had travelled 1,360 miles in 108 days as of Saturday, according to party sources.

At the meeting, former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy would formally join the Congress.

Srinivas Reddy and ex-minister Jupally Krishna Rao recently announced their decision to join the party.

The victory of the Congress in recent Karnataka elections has given a boost to the party unit in neighbouring Telangana.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and MP A Revanth Reddy has said the party would end the BRS rule in the state with the rally in Khammam.

Reddy said Congress would sound the bugle for elections with the Khammam rally and expressed confidence that the meeting would be attended by more people compared to the public meeting organised earlier by ruling BRS in the town.

Aiming to win the Assembly polls scheduled to be held later this year in Telangana, the Congress is making elaborate arrangements to make the rally being attended by Gandhi, a huge success.

The party is also seeking to ward off the challenge from BJP which is making efforts to emerge as the alternative to ruling BRS.

BJP had won two assembly by-polls and came up with good performance in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections during the last couple of years posing a threat of occupying the main opposition space held by Congress.

Congress has been the major opposition party in Telangana since state formation in 2014.