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Congress committed to fulfilling 6 vows: Rahul raises poll pitch
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that he Congress is committed to implementing its six guarantees in Telangana if elected in the upcoming assembly elections
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the party was committed to implementing its six guarantees given to the people of Telangana for the upcoming assembly elections in the state, as it did in all the states where it had come to power.
Addressing a public rally at the tribal hamlet of Ramanujapuram in Mulug district, Rahul Gandhi said the Congress had never gone back on its promises made to the people in any state where it was voted to power.
Telangana is going to vote on November 30 and results will be announced on December 3 with that of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.
“In Rajasthan, the Congress government has been providing free treatment to the poor through its health scheme, as promised before the last elections. In Chhattisgarh, our government was procuring paddy at much higher rate than minimum support price, as promised to the farmers before the 2018 elections. In Karnataka, the Congress had given five guarantees to the people during the elections and soon after coming to power, it has been implementing them,” he pointed out.
Stating that the Congress had always stood by its word given to the people, the Congress MP said the party was certain to come to power in Telangana along with four other states going to polls and would definitely implement all the promises it had made.
“In fact, it is the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) which has cheated the people by not implementing its promises made to the people like distribution of three acres of land among the Dalits and waiver of crop loans on time,” he said.
Apart from implementing the six guarantees given to the people, Rahul Gandhi said, the Congress, if voted to power, would do justice to the tribals by distributing title deeds for all the “Podu” lands (where tribals do shifting cultivation) and assigned lands of Dalits.
He also assured that if the Congress-led coalition comes to power at the Centre, it would declare the Sammakka-Saralamma tribal fair as a national festival.
Speaking at the rally, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi said she had noticed that no section of the Telangana society was happy with the BRS government. “The Congress granted statehood to Telangana, after acknowledging the sacrifices made by several people and understanding their aspirations. The party had to pay a heavy political price for granting Telangana state; it always gave importance to the aspirations of the people,” she said.
She regretted that even after the formation of separate Telangana, there had been no social justice in the state. In the last nine years, the state had only witnessed suicides, atrocities on women and domination of the upper castes, she said.
PCC president A Revanth Reddy and Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and others spoke.
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka visited the famous Ramappa temple, a Unesco heritage site, and offered prayers to Lord Shiva. They placed a brochure of the party’s six guarantees at the feet of the Lord and sought blessings.
Reacting to the visit of Rahul Gandhi to Telangana, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) lawmaker and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavita described him as only “Election Gandhi” not Rahul Gandhi.
She alleged that the Congress leaders had turned blind to see the development in Telangana in the last nine years. “Today, Hyderabad is on the global map with top companies like Google and Amazon having their offices here. If this is not development and empowerment, then Rahul Ji, please tell me what is empowerment?” she asked.
She pointed out that the BJP government at the Centre had not given even a single IIT or IIM or any institute of national status to Telangana, but Rahul had never questioned it. “If you did not speak about Telangana’s loss in last 10 years, why are you even coming to campaign in Telangana?” she asked.
