MSR halts VHR's proposed yatra

HYDERABAD: A day after AICC secretary V Hanumantha Rao announced his Sonia Sandesh Yatra, PCC president M Satyanarayana Rao asked him to cancel the tour. The PCC chief summoned Hanumantha Rao to his residence on Monday morning and reportedly berated him for announcing the yatra without his prior permission.
Satyanarayana Rao also asked Hanumantha Rao to produce the AICC letter which the latter claimed to have obtained for undertaking the yatra.Satyanarayana Rao took exception to Hanumantha Rao holding a press conference on Sunday without his permission and announcing the decision to tour four Rayalaseema districts and Mahbubnagar in 15 days. The PCC last week permitted party leaders to undertake padayatras within their own districts if they happen to be those not covered by Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
The party, however, asked the leaders to obtain permission from the PCC president before undertaking any such programme. Satyanarayana Rao later told reporters at Gandhi Bhavan that Hanumantha Rao’s yatra had no approval of the PCC and that he had directed the DCC presidents not to associate with it. On YSR’s padayatra, the PCC president said the CLP leader had obtained his permission before undertaking the 60-day walkathon.
Satyanarayana Rao, sources said, also pulled up former chief minister N Janardhan Reddy for reportedly encouraging Hanumantha Rao to take up the yatra. Janardhan Reddy informed the PCC president that he was not interested in state politics and he was leaving for Delhi to attend the Parliament session.
Meanwhile, Hanumantha Rao, when contacted by The Times of India, said he saw no reason in the PCC president halting his tour. The programme was aimed at taking the message of Sonia Gandhi to the rural masses, he said. He would take up the matter with the party high command, he added. According to sources, the party high command also asked Hanumantha Rao not to undertake his yatra.