Rajahmundry: Founder President of the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) Chiranjeevi on Tuesday said his party was committed to the welfare of the poor, backwdard classes and downtrodden in Andhra Pradesh.

Addressing a largely attended ‘Social Justice Sankharavam’ meeting, he said his party would launch schemes for the welfare of backward classes and downtrodden, who were ”neglected” by the successive governments, if his party was voted to power in the next elections.

Stating the PRP belonged to the people as he launched the party on the advice of the people to work for the social justice, he expressed hope the people who accepted the PRP slogan of social justice would vote for the party in the coming elections to serve the people.

He said the successive governments had utilised the services of the backward classes and downtrodden during the elections and failed to provide proper representation to them in Parliament and State Legislature.

He said the PRP would give proper representation to the backward classes and would allocate enough seats for them in the elections.

He alleged the Congress and the TDP had deceived the poor and backward classes for the last several years by neglecting their welfare and used them for their vote banks.

He alleged the Congress and the TDP were trying to come to power in the State and misleading the public by making baseless allegations against his party.

The Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) office here wore a deserted look on Tuesday with party leaders and cadres leaving for Rajahmundry to make “Saamajika Nyaya Sankharavam”, a public meeting organised on the plank of social justice, a success.

The PRP leadership gave a call to the party cadres to attend the meeting in large numbers, considering its importance as the second biggest show of strength after the Tirupati public meeting of Chiranjeevi.

Responding with enthusiasm, party leaders in the city and district mobilised their cadres in a big way for the meeting.

Hundreds of cars, buses and bikes headed for the public meeting carrying enthusiasts, who wanted to witness the release of the party manifesto on the occasion.

One leader said that the party took it as a matter of prestige to attract wide attention of the public in the run-up to the general elections.

Meanwhile, party leaders dismissed the possibility of dalit leader Katti Padma Rao contesting elections from Gannavaram Assembly segment. Mr. Rao is stated to have opted for Razole (SC) or any other constituency where weaker sections will be predominant in numbers.

The party leadership is learnt to have asked Mr. Rao to consider contesting from Gannavaram in view of the twin advantage of attracting Kapu and dalit votes in the segment.

In respect of allowing Vangaveeti Radhakrishna to contest from Vijayawada East, the party leadership is reportedly weighing all options before finalising its stand. Sources said Mr. Radhakrishna has decided to leave it to the party leadership about his candidature from the constituency. The MLA is maintaining an ambivalent stance, saying he may or may not contest from Vijayawada East.

Party leaders said Mr. Radhakrishna was all likely to contest from Vijayawada Central segment only going by the present mood of the State leadership.

The Praja Rajyam chief, Mr Chiranjeevi, and the Telugu Desam president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Monday rubbished a poll survey predicting victory for the Congress in the state. “It is a cooked up survey and does not reflect the ground reality,” said Chiranjeevi. “It is only meant to create confusion among the voters and dampen the spirits of the Praja Rajyam cadre.” Chiranjeevi did not find any fault with the NTV and Neilson Org-MARG which conducted the survey but added that the more important aspect was “those behind the survey.” The megastar-turned-politician said that there was a silent revolution in favour of the Praja Rajyam and the party would sweep the polls. Mr C. Anjaneya Reddy, Praja Rajyam vice-president and former IPS officer, demanded a ban on the surveys 100 days before the polls saying they were being used by some parties to mislead people. Meanwhile, Mr Naidu was visibly irked by the surveys which stated that his Mahakutami would end up in the second place.

Nagababu – Tamaneni Sitaram has expressed their confidence regarding common symbol to Prajarajyam party, they said this month on 16th court is going to give its verdict in the favor of P R P. They had been to review the arrangments for the meeting that is being planned to be held on 10th of this month. They stated that there is no confusion in public about this. They said not to believe on leaders who say that they got ticket on behalf of P R P. After 15th of this month first list of candidates would be released.

T D P – Senior leader – Kinjaravu Erramnaidu would be contesting from Srikakulum to counter him P R P is planning to represent Tamineni Sitaram and his seat on behalf of P R P is almost confirmed. Tamineni Sitaram along with Srikakulum seat is also making his wife Vani to contest from Amadaala Assembly seat is his demand. Other leaders say that giving two seats for both of them is not welcoming act with in the party.