Realignment of politics in Telangana: Harish Rao

Hyderabad: Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao on Sunday came down like a tonne of bricks on the Congress leaders, criticising their accusations that the TRS is encouraging mass defections.

 

“All political parties in TS should now realise that there has been a realignment of political forces in the state. This realignment has come about following Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s resolve to turn TS into ‘Bangaru Telangana’, Mr Harish Rao said. 

 

Reacting to Saturday’s comments by senior Congress leaders, he reminded them that it was the  ‘Grand Old Party’ that had started the “defection game” during Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s time. 

 

Addressing a news conference at the Telangana Bhavan, Mr Harish Rao said there was a time when TRS legislators had openly defied the party and defected to the Congress at the behest of YSR. “The very leaders of this party, who had kept mum at that time, are now crying foul,” he said. 

 

He said that for achieving statehood for Telangana, several parties had joined hands. “Now to achieve ‘Bangaru Telangana’ several Opposition leaders are joining TRS,” Mr Harish Rao said. 

 

We are only welcoming these leaders. When what you have done then was not wrong, then what we are doing now should be not wrong,” Mr Harish Rao said, referring to Congress leader K. Jana Reddy’s criticism. 

 

He said that the TD has no cadre in TS and the party has shifted it’s base to AP. “The BJP, which claims Telangana became a reality due to its support in Parliament, also has no people with it, except a few leaders,” he said.