TRS leaders slam Uttam Kumar Reddy for tirade against K Chandrasekhar Rao

Hyderabad: Leaders of the TRS party tore into N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, the president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, terming his criticism of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao the “rhetoric of a loser”.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy made a prediction that the Congress party would not manage to win even a single seat in the 2019 Assembly elections. He said that during the Congress’ rule, the Secretariat had been an “adda of pyravikaars” (hub for ?), while Pragathi Bhavan was a reflection of the development in Telangana under the TRS government.

Mr Jagadish Reddy asked Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy to think about his involvement in the Telangana statehood movement before criticising the Chief Minister and his family. “Uttam Kumar Reddy made no contribution to the Telangana movement, and now he poses as an important leader of the state. During the agitation for statehood, all of us resigned from our posts as MLAs, but Uttam chose to remain a Minister under a Chief Minister from Seemandhra,” he said.

“Uttam should realise that Pragathi Bhavan is not Mr Rao’s personal residence. It will be occupied by whoever holds the post of Chief Minister,” he added.

Mr Jagadish Reddy asked why the Congress was shying away from elections if it was confident that it had people’s support. “Congress MLAs are going to court for the revival of their membership of Legislative Assembly. If they have the guts, they should face bypolls in Nalgonda and Alampur. The fact that they are trying to avoid elections shows that they know that they won’t win those two seats,” he said.

Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao slammed leaders of the Congress for filing cases in court to obstruct the progress of the Kaleshwaram Project and the Palamur-RR Project.

The Chief Minister voiced the same opinion while addressing a meeting at Telangana Bhavan. “Congress leaders from Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar who lost to TRS candidates in the 2014 elections are filing cases against irrigation projects at the High Court, the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal. We have released evidence of this, but Uttam still pretends that the Congress does not obstruct projects,” Mr Rao said.