Hyderabad: BRS working president and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday charged the Congress with conspiring to steal industries and jobs away from Telangana and take them to Karnataka.
Addressing a meeting of lawyers and calling on them to support the BRS in the Assembly elections, Rama Rao claimed that Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar wrote to Foxconn company, asking it to move its planned unit from Telangana to Bengaluru. “This is what will happen if Congress comes to power in the state. All the hard work of attracting investments and industries will suffer. If Congress is voted for, Telangana will be set back by 50 years,” he said.
Calling on his audience to vote for the BRS to curb such efforts, he said that although Opposition parties were pressing all their top leaders into the campaign, “KCR, like a lion, comes alone.”
Rama Rao, brandishing a copy of a letter he said was written by Shivakumar, read out: “On behalf of Karnataka government, I propose that you consider relocating the Apple Airpods industry which you planned to set up in Hyderabad to Bengaluru. This move holds numerous mutual benefits. Not only will it complement the Apple phone manufacturing industry but it will also leverage the city's transportation facilities and available workforce.”
Moving to another section of the letter, Rama Rao read: “Furthermore, several international industries in Hyderabad have expressed interest in relocating to Bengaluru. We anticipate forming a friendly government in Telangana soon assuring that you will encounter no hindrances there. Hence, it would be mutually beneficial for your ancillary industry to make this move as well.”
Rama Rao said that it took five years of pursuit for Foxconn to enter into an MoU with the state government in 2022, which he said, will create one lakh employment opportunities in the region.
Addressing a meeting at Telangana Bhavan later in the day, where former Warangal BJP leader A. Rakesh Reddy and others joined the BRS, Rama Rao said people should place their faith in Chandrashekar Rao, “the leader who has changed Telangana in the past nine and a half years.”
“The BJP and Congress are pressing into campaign Modi, Amit Shah, 15 of their Chief Ministers and Union ministers, Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi along with Shiva Kumar and Mallikarjun Kharge. All to take on one man, KCR. In 2014 and 2018, KCR entered the elections alone, and this time too, it is the same,” he said.
