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Telangana: Bypoll battle heats up, Amit Shah targets KCR in his backyard
Addressing a public rally at Munugode, where former Congress lawmaker Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy was inducted into the BJP, Union home minister Amit Shah said the dreams of Telangana’s people, who had waged a relentless battle to achieve a separate state, would be realised only if the BJP was voted to power.
A victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the by-election to Munugode assembly seat in Nalgonda district would be the beginning of the downfall of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Sunday.
Addressing a public rally at Munugode, where former Congress lawmaker Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy was inducted into the BJP, Shah said the dreams of Telangana’s people, who had waged a relentless battle to achieve a separate state, would be realised only if the BJP was voted to power.
“Whatever Telangana had been lacking for the last eight years will be fulfilled by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, once the BJP comes to power in the state,” Shah said. “Let the lotus bloom in Telangana, you will see how Telangana will witness all-round development.”
Stating that Reddy’s entry into the BJP has given a lot of strength to the party in the state, the home minister said it would mark the beginning of the collapse of the chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)-led government, which made tall promises but did not fulfil any of them.
“Before coming to power in 2014, KCR had promised to officially celebrate September 17 (when erstwhile Hyderabad under the Nizam rule was merged with Indian Union in 1948) as the Telangana Liberation Day, but he had never fulfilled the promise as he was afraid of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). If the BJP comes to power, it will fulfil this promise,” Shah said.
“The TRS chief (KCR) has made many such promises, such as unemployment allowance of ₹3,000 per month to each of the state’s unemployed youth, establishment of a super-specialty hospital in every district, construction of double-bedroom houses to all shelterless poor people etc. But none of them was fulfilled,” he claimed.
The Union minister also claimed that KCR had promised to make a Dalit as the chief minister of Telangana but did not bother to do it. “If the TRS is voted to power again, he will make his son as the next chief minister, but not a Dalit,” he said.
Calling KCR “anti-farmer”, Shah said the TRS government has failed to implement the Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana (a centrally sponsored crop insurance scheme) in Telangana and that it backtracked on procurement of paddy from farmers. “If the BJP is voted to power in Telangana, the Centre will purchase every kilogram of paddy produced in the state,” Shah asserted.
Alleging that KCR and his family members were “looting” the people of the state, Shah claimed that the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (on the Godavari river) had become an “ATM for the family”. He also accused the Telangana government of burdening the people by refusing to reduce the Value Added Tax on petrol and diesel even as the Centre reduced the central excise duty on fuel twice.
“The Centre had given over ₹2 lakh crore to Telangana under various schemes. Yet, the state is in deep debts,” he said, asking: “Why should the people pay penalty for the corruption of one family?”
Rejecting Shah’s allegations against the TRS government as “rubbish”, senior TRS leader from Nalgonda and state energy minister G Jagadish Reddy said the Union minister spoke like a “street-level party leader”.
“Perhaps, the local BJP leaders did not give him a proper script. Nalgonda has not one, but three medical colleges and hospitals,” Reddy said. “He talked about reduction in excise duty on petrol, but not about the abnormal hike in LPG cylinder price. His comments on paddy procurement were totally false.”
Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy, BJP parliamentary board member and MP Dr K Laxman, BJP Telangana president Bandi Sanjay and others also attended the rally addressed by Shah.
Earlier in the day, Shah performed special prayers at Ujjaini Mahankali temple at Secunderabad and visited the residence of a BJP worker, N Satyanarayana, at Sambamurthi Nagar. Later, he met a group of state farmers at Begumpet and discussed their problems, such as paddy procurement and implementation of the PM Fasal Bima Yojana.
