Hyderabad: Asserting that all sections of people were backing the TRS and would vote for the party again as it had implemented all its poll promises, party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday slammed the BJP, Congress and Telugu Desam for targeting the ruling party.
Taking exception to Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya and others calling the TRS-sponsored survey “bogus”, Mr Rao said, “Your party has also conducted surveys. Were they bogus? The survey is not bogus, but damak (brain) is bogus. You are not able to digest the survey which is favourable to the TRS. Your stomach is filled with gas.”
“Characterless Telugu Desam, addressless BJP, outdated Communists” have no place in Telangana state, he said. “People yearn for the TRS as it has done well for them.”
He called Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu a “cheat” for going back on waiver of loans to farmers in his state, asked him to mind his business in AP. Mr Rao asserted that Mr Naidu had no place in Telangana state and would lose his deposit.
He challenged Congress MLAs to resign if they had the guts and contest again instead of demanding that the TRS get its legislators to resign.
“You people resign and prove if you have public support. Why should we resign? We have resigned umpteen times. I myself have quit several times. We are fed up with resigning. I will not be surprised if there will be repeat of the GHMC polls results in the Assembly elections too,” he said.
Mr Rao was speaking after admitting Telugu Desam former MP Ramesh Rathod, Congress leader P. Ravinder Rao and other TD and Congress leaders from Adilabad district into the party at Telangana Bhavan on Monday. Ministers T. Harish Rao, A. Indrakaran Reddy, Jogu Ramanna, Tummala Nageswara Rao and others were present.
Listing out the historic political events till the formation of the state and subsequent series of developmental and welfare activities that “stunned the state and country”, Mr Rao said the people would vote for TRS on just one issue — electricity.
“Farmers suffered for ages for want of quality power. Farms dried up due to lack of water, agriculture pump sets got burnt due to low voltage. But it’s a thing of the past. From a mere Rs 5 lakh annual income through sand mining, we got '370 crore in 2015-16, Rs 432 crore in 2016-17 and we have now set a target of Rs 650 crore,” he said.
He said he was confident that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would back 10 per cent reservations to STs. Mr Rao said he would fight with the Centre if 12 per cent reservations for Muslims was not approved.
