MIM saved me from coup', says K Chandrasekhar Rao
This was despite the TRS winning 63 seats and losing 14 seats by just 500 to 1,000 votes, Mr Rao said.
Hyderabad: TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao created a flutter on Wednesday, saying that the MIM helped him to become the Chief Minister after his party won the 2014 Assembly elections while the Congress, TD and others hatched a conspiracy to prevent him from taking oath. This was despite the TRS winning 63 seats and losing 14 seats by just 500 to 1,000 votes, Mr Rao said.
Asserting that the TRS will win the 2019 elections, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday defended the entry of leaders from other parties into the TRS, saying they were joining the ruling party impressed by the rapid strides all sectors were making besides ensuring political and economic stability in the state.
“I want to tell you something which I never told you before. Do you remember before I took oath as CM, Chandrababu Naidu said AP, Telangana will rejoin like the breaking of Berlin wall? Bhatti Vikramarka, T-Congress working president, said this government will fall. I was CM designate and police officials informed me about this,” he said.
Mr Rao said that MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi telephoned and subsequently met him and revealed the conspiracy. “TD and Congress wanted to prevent me from taking oath as CM at any cost and impose President’s rule. But MIM stood by me,” he said.
The CM was speaking at a function at the Telangana Bhavan after welcoming Nalgonda Congress MP Gutta Sukhender Reddy, Miryalguda Congress MLA N. Bhaskar Rao, CPI Deverkonda (ST) MLA Ravindra Kumar Ramavath, former Congress Peddapalli MP G. Vivekanand, former minister G. Vinod and Congress leader Juvvada Narsing Rao from Korutla into the TRS.
He hit out at CLP leader K. Jana Reddy asking why he remained silent when a conspiracy was hatched against him and when Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy took away 10 out of 16 TRS legislators including Vijayashanti and Arvinda Reddy.
Referring to Mr Jana Reddy’s comments that he was destroying the state and indulging in unethical practices, Mr Rao asked whether what the Congress leader and his team had done in the past was ethical.
“If they do it, it is justified, if we do it, it’s injustice. Naidu opposes TS irrigation projects but Congress has an electoral tie-up with it in Khammam and Achampet. Was that justified? I am not scared of threats or comments that I have purchased them. We should not fall prey to Samaikhya protagonists,” he said.
Mr Rao said he faced insults, abuses and conspiracies all through Telangana movement from 2001 to 2014. “I escaped from jaws of death. Telangana suffered for 100 years. TRS, Congress, TD, BJP etc. formed TJAC. Except TRS MLAs and one BJP MLA, no MLA quit for Telangana.” he said.