HYDERABAD: Taking over the reins of the APCC Saturday, president Botcha Satyanarayana handed out a lesson in popular politics, perhaps for the benefit of chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy seated on the dais.It’s more important to involve partymen in welfare activities, he said, rather than rely on expensive publicity and advertising campaigns to connect with the people.Botcha’s comments at his investiture ceremony Saturday assume importance in the context of the widely held opinion that Congress cadres are not getting their due from government functionaries, particularly the chief minister.“We are actually spending more on welfare schemes now than during the late YSR’s regime. Yet there is a feeling among people that not enough is being done.This is because the party has become inactive at the local level and grassroots party workers feel alienated,” Botcha said.He went on to say that spending crores of rupees on TV and press advertisements would not help the party.At the end of the day, it is only the grassroots party worker who can carry the Congress to victory, he said, in a swipe at the publicity campaign launched by the Kiran Kumar government in the electronic media.Apart from such subtle digs punctuating the public bonhomie between the new PCC chief and the chief minister, another notable fact at the event was the conspicuous absence of PRP president K Chiranjeevi -- whose party is to soon merge with the Congress. Equally conspicuous was the presence of former Union minister Dasari Narayana Rao on the dais. Chiranjeevi and Dasari belong to the Kapu community but they are said not to enjoy a good relationship.Botcha had personally invited both of them to the function. Chiranjeevi sent his party’s MLC C Ramachandraiah as his stand-in.Sources close to Chiranjeevi claimed he did not want to make an appearance at Gandhi Bhavan before the formal merger of the PRP and Congress.But another view is Chiranjeevi stayed out when he came to know of the invitation to Dasari.
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