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Congress to fulfil dream of ‘Golden Telangana’: Rahul
MP Rahul Gandhi has promised to implement six guarantees if voted to power in the upcoming assembly polls in Telangana.
Hyderabad: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday said his party, if voted to power in the upcoming assembly elections, would herald a real “Bangaru Telangana” (Golden Telangana) by implementing its six guarantees in letter and spirit.
The six guarantees, announced by senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi during a rally on September 17, are ₹2,500 in monthly aid and gas cylinders at ₹500 for women; ₹5 lakh in aid for the homeless; 200 units of free electricity; ₹5 lakh in assistance for those pursuing higher studies; ₹4,000 monthly pension for the elderly; and ₹15,000 annual assistance for farmers and ₹12,000 for farm labourers.
Telangana is set to go to polls on November 30, and the counting of votes will take place on December 3. The Congress is hoping to trounce the BJP and the BRS, which has ruled the state since its birth in 2014.
WATCH | Rahul Gandhi tries his hand at dosa-making at roadside eatery in Telangana
Wrapping up his three-day whirlwind tour in the poll-bound state on Friday, Gandhi promised to provide ₹12,000 to ₹15,000 support price per quintal to turmeric farmers and an additional ₹500 per quintal as bonus over the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for every crop they grow. The Congress MP also reiterated his promise of carrying out a caste survey in the state, if the party is voted to power.
“The Congress tsunami will sweep the state in the coming elections and deliver the dream of Bangaru Telangana. This is my guarantee,” the Congress MP said, addressing a huge public rally at Armoor in Nizamabad district.
Assuring the people that the Congress was committed to implementing all its promises, he said: “We are committed to ensuring a minimum support price of ₹12,000-15,000 per quintal for turmeric crops. Furthermore, we shall provide an additional ₹500 per quintal as bonus over the MSP for paddy.”
Launching an attack on the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Gandhi asserted that the battle was not a mere political contest but a fight between “Dorala” (feudal lords) Telangana and “Prajala” (people’s) Telangana.
READ | Congress will hold caste survey in Telangana: Rahul Gandhi
“Our fight is about ideology. This is not a political fight for me but a fight of DNA... We will defeat them (BJP) in every state. We will defeat BRS here in Telangana and we will defeat BJP in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,” he added.
Earlier in the day, at a rally at Jagtial, Gandhi claimed that Sonia Gandhi helped in the creation of the state of Telangana. “Had Sonia Gandhi not helped, a separate Telangana would not have been formed,” he said.
“But even after the formation of a separate state, their dreams remained unfulfilled. What they are witnessing is a dictatorial regime. The entire Telangana has come under the grip of one family, which was caught neck-deep in corruption. For the last nine years, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his family had looted people’s money and I shall see that every paise that was looted will be recovered from them,” he added.
Telangana was accorded statehood by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2014.
Stating that he had a special bond with the people of Telangana, Gandhi said it had nothing to do with politics. “This bond has been continuing from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. It was Indira Gandhi who had fought for the lands of Telangana people. Sonia Gandhi had granted a separate state. The people of this region had always supported us,” he said.
The Congress leader said he has been fighting relentlessly against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while the BRS was hand-in-glove with the latter. “The BJP government at the Centre has been harassing me. It has filed cases against me, got my Lok Sabha membership cancelled and driven me out of my residence. But it could not evict me from the hearts of the people of India,” he pointed out.
He sought to know why the BJP government had not filed any single case against KCR, while it filed innumerable cases against other opposition leaders.
Gandhi’s remarks triggered sharp reactions from the BRS.
“Let me remind him his own grandmother (former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi) Indira ji gave us one and only emergency of this country, so there is no bigger dictator in India’s independence history than Smt Indira Gandhi. So, please don’t try to teach us lessons. Don’t try to teach virtues of democracy…It looks like the devil preaching the sermons,” BRS working president KT Rama Rao said.
“The most entitled gentleman in the country talks about ‘dorala palana’, that’s probably one of the biggest jokes that I have heard because but for the surname Gandhi, who really knows Rahul ji?” he asked.
On Gandhi’s allegation that KCR was not interested in carrying out a caste survey, the state minister said: “He doesn’t know that the Telangana state assembly passed a resolution demanding the Centre to conduct the caste survey about nine months ago.”
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s comments that his relationship with Telangana was not political, but a familial one, BRS MLC K Kavitha said: “The only relation that the Gandhi family has with Telangana is that of betrayal and backwardness.”
