Ravi comes for poll campaign

HYDERABAD: PCC president B Satyanarayana received him at the airport. Ravi told reporters at the airport that the Congress would win the maximum seats in the bypoll. He will be touring Allagadda in Kurnool district along with chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana on Thursday.Another observer of the party high command KB Krishna Murthy is also camping in Hyderabad.He is interacting with party functionaries on day to day basis and is giving them his piece of mind on what to do to attract voters. Ravi’s arrival, according to sources, indicates how serious the party central leadership is on the ongoing poll campaign.As the writing on the wall is clear, both Kiran Kumar Reddy and Botcha Satyanarayana have declared a temporary cease-fire and are working together to improve the prospects of the party nominees.They are campaigning together and separately, as Delhi has kept them under watch.Botcha Satyanarayana these days is not speaking a word against Kiran Kumar Reddy even in private talk with his colleagues.The lunch meeting he had with Kiran recently was the first step in the thawing of relations between the two.“I had lunch meetings earlier with the chief minister. There is nothing new to indicate that I have become a friend of chief minister. I have been one since beginning,” Botcha is reported to have commented with his colleagues on Wednesday.When Ravi called Botcha on Tuesday and told him that he was interested in staying for three to four days and take part in campaign, the message was clear - the high command was attaching a lot of importance to the byelections.Despite his advanced age, Ravi had told the PCC chief that he would take part in the campaign and see for himself how the people were responding to the message of the Congress.“The situation is much better now than say a fortnight ago. We are able to create confidence among the party workers,” Botcha is reported to have said.