Hyderabad: Telangana minister KT Rama Rao on Sunday asked Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to win four assembly seats in his Amethi constituency before speaking about winning in Telanagana Assembly elections.
Addressing a gathering of MSME Industries at Balanagar here, the IT minister hit back at Gandhi saying where ever he stepped in it "proved to be disaster" for Congress.
Rahul's salvo targeting Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao over dynastic politics had ricocheted back, with Rama Rao calling it "joke of the millennium" on Saturday.
"Time and again it was proved in Uttar Pradesh and many other elections. Rahul Gandhi is irrelevant to politics looking at his loosing track record. People have already forgotten him," said KTR, son of K Chandrasekhar Rao.
"Wasn't it the Congress party government which forcefully merged Telangana with Andhra Pradesh? Wasn't it the Congress which carried out firing on students and killed 369 students during 1969 agitation? Isn't the Congress (indirectly) responsible for the suicides of the innocent youths of Telangana and delay in formation of Telangana?" he asked.
In 1969, there was an agitation demanding separate Telangana state from undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Despite the Congress party's assurance of Rs 2 lakh loan waiver against the Rs 1 lakh promise of the TRS party during the last elections, Telangana people rejected Rahul Gandhi's party, he claimed.
The Congress is time and again being rejected by people and have already lost credibility and it should stop its baseless allegations against the TRS government, KTR said.
"Some so called 'national leaders' of 'national' parties who can't even win an election in their own backyard, make tall claims elsewhere.
"Indian Notional (sic) Congress leadership talking of family rule has to be the joke of the millennium. Classic comedy," KTR had tweeted on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the BJP also targeted Rahul Gandhi, saying his statement in Telangana was tantamount to "pot calling the kettle black".
"Rahul Gandhi asked how can four persons of one family run the government... This question was asked by Gandhi family's scion? Four people of his family ran India for 60 years and he is talking about family politics?" BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said in Panaji.
"The pot is calling the kettle black. We can't blame Rahul for that. If you place ration card in front of him (during public speeches) he will read out that too," Patra said.
