‘Opportunistic’ BRS Will Meet the Same Fate As TD: Uttam
Congress leader calls BRS ‘politically unreliable,’ accuses it of aiding BJP’s rise and neglecting minorities
Hyderabad: Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday said that the BRS would meet the same fate as the Telugu Desam because of its ‘opportunistic’ nature. He recalled that the TD’s alliance with the BJP led to its ‘political decline’.
Addressing an election meeting at Yousufguda, as part of the Jubilee Hills byelection campaign in support of Congress candidate Naveen Yadav, he said regional parties like the BRS were ‘politically unreliable’ and had repeatedly helped the BJP’s growth by dividing the secular vote.
“Wherever regional parties grow, the Congress declines, and the BJP gains. The BRS, too, has been acting as a silent partner of the BJP. It never protested when the BJP reduced budgets for minorities or targeted their educational and employment opportunities,” he said.
The minister asserted that the Congress was the only party that remained truly secular ‘from Delhi to Galli’ and the only force capable of defeating the BJP both in Telangana and across India.
While the BRS government failed to protect minority institutions and interests, he said the Congress had a long and verifiable record of empowerment. Nearly 80 per cent of minority colleges, he said, had closed during the BRS regime, and welfare schemes for minority men were left incomplete.
“In contrast, the Congress government announced the Minority Declaration with a Rs 4,000-crore budget and a minority sub-plan. Out of this, Rs 1,000-crore subsidy was earmarked for the first two years. Though not fully released yet, the process has started, and the implementation is underway,” he explained.
Uttam Kumar Reddy also recalled that during the previous Congress tenure, the extension of BC reservations to local body polls had enabled hundreds of Muslims to become sarpanches and Zilla Parishad members for the first time, thereby ensuring genuine political empowerment at the grassroots level.
The meeting was also addressed by PCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud, Advisor to Telangana Government Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Ministers Ponnam Prabhakar and Md Azharuddin and other senior leaders.