Congress' Karnataka victory no big deal, says KCR

HYDERABAD: BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao brought the Congress back to the centrestage and launched a scathing attack on the party at the joint meeting of MPs, MLAs and MLCs at Telagana Bhavan on Wednesday.

He had been largely targeting the BJP since the party won the Huzurabad bypoll in 2021. The CM's sharp criticism of the Congress came after it registered a spectacular victory on Saturday last in the Karnataka polls and triggered a debate over its impact on poll-bound Telangana.

Rao said the Congress had failed the country on all fronts after ruling for several decades, adding that no one would believe the party in Telangana and vote for it. He asked the party leaders and cadre not to take the Karnataka results seriously.

In his first reaction to the Karnataka election outcome, Rao said the Congress winning the elections was not a big issue. He reportedly named the BJP only once, saying  that the ‘Gujarat model’ was bogus and that the ‘Telangana model’ of development programmes and welfare schemes was attracting the attention of people from all the states.

The CM reiterated that the BRS would win 95 to 105 seats if the elections were held now, adding that all the surveys he had commissioned reported that voters were in favour of the BRS.

Importantly, Rao, who used to promise party tickets to all MLAs to contest the upcoming Assembly polls, changed his stance on Wednesday and assured tickets to 'maximum MLAs' but said survey results will be final in selecting the candidates. He cautioned the MLAs saying, "I am keenly watching everything and all the factors will be taken into consideration before finalising the candidates."

Rao directed the ministers to hold meetings with the MPs, MLAs, MLCs of their respective districts within a week, sort out issues and work unitedly for the polls, and not act in an unilateral manner.

He asked the party leaders to utilise the 21-day decennial celebrations of Telangana state formation from June 2 to reach out to people and explain the welfare schemes and development programmes of the BRS government. The CM stated that the state government will provide department-wise progress reports to MLAs besides audio and video publicity material.