KCR keeps poll suspense, tells state to reject national parties

Hyderabad: TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday chose to continue the suspense over the dissolution of the Assembly to pave the way for early elections.

The CM’s speech at the Telangana Pragathi Nivedana Sabha, at Kongara Kalan on the city outskirts, lacked his usual wit and brimstone, and did not contain fresh election sops. He confined himself to listing the achievements of the TRS government in welfare and development programmes in the past four years during his 50-minute speech.

Addressing the huge public meeting, Mr Rao said, “The State Cabinet, party MPs, MLAs and MLCs have given me the power to take a political decision on early polls. I will take a decision on this at an appropriate time. You will come to know about such political decisions soon. I will keep the interests of Telangana and TRS in mind before taking such decisions.”

The CM played the self-respect card, urging the people of the state not to opt for national parties, as it was the case with Tamil Nadu. He said that even Assembly tickets in national parties were decided in Delhi.

He asked the people to choose between whether they wanted to live independently with self respect or do ‘ghulaamgiri and chamchaagiri’ to Delhi by voting for national parties.

He said, “Speculation is doing the rounds on Assembly dissolution  and early polls. There were also reports that I will announce new sops today. As the head of the government and CM, I  cannot make such announcements here.”

"On political issues, I will soon take a decision which is good for the future of Telangana state. You will soon come to know about political decisions."

The CM asked the people to follow in the footsteps of Tamil Nadu by rejecting national parties. “Look at our Tamil brothers and sisters. They never allowed national parties to rule them for the past 50-60 years. Tamilians have been ruling themselves with dignity and self respect.  Like them, we too should become united and opt for self-rule. They should question whether they want the decisions concerning Telangana be taken by people of Telangana or by those in Delhi. They should choose whether they want to live with self respect or become ghulams in the hands of Delhi or gulabis (roses) of Telangana,” he remarked.

Referring to election sops, he said, “We will soon constitute a manifesto committee headed by K. Keshava Rao, which will finalise new sops which we will implement if voted to power. I should not make such announcements here though as the media will write about it.”