Hyderabad, Jan 4 (IANS): A month after capturing power in Telangana, the Congress has set an ambitious target of winning at least 12 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) will work out a strategy to achieve the target by holding a review meeting with leaders from five districts each on January 8 and 9. This will be followed by meetings with in-charges for all 17 Lok Sabha seats from January 10 to 12.

The Congress leaders would embark on visits to all constituencies from January 20 to connect with voters at the grassroots level.

These decisions were taken at an extended meeting of TPCC presided over by its president and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Wednesday and attended by All India Congress Committee (AICC) Telangana in-charge Deepadas Munshi. This was the first meeting after her appointment as in-charge in place of Manikrao Thakare.

The meeting congratulated her on being appointed AICC in-charge. It also passed a resolution acknowledging the significant contributions of Manikrao Thakare in the recent electoral victory in Telangana.

The TPCC requested Congress Parliamentary Party leader Sonia Gandhi to contest for Lok Sabha from Telangana. A resolution moved by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy was passed unanimously.

The discussion was centred around the strategy for Lok Sabha elections, implementation of six guarantees and filling up nominated posts. Deepadas Munshi advised party leaders to work hard to achieve the target for Lok Sabha elections. She stressed the need for greater coordination between the party and the government.

The meeting condemned Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) for misleading people by publishing books highlighting unfulfilled promises of the Congress even before the new government completed a month in office. Revanth Reddy asked the party leaders to expose BRS propaganda and highlight their mismanagement of state finances.

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, ministers and senior leaders participated in the meeting.

The party is expected to begin the process of selecting candidates for the Lok Sabha polls soon.

In 2019, the Congress party had bagged three out of 17 Lok Sabha seats. All the three MPs, including Revanth Reddy ,contested the recent Assembly elections and won.

BRS had won nine seats in 2019 while BJP had bagged four seats. The AIMIM had retained one seat.