TRS cadre can’t stop padayatra, says Bandi

HYDERABAD: BJP Telangana state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Monday said threats and attacks by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) workers on his Praja Sangrama Yatra would not deter him or his party activists from highlighting the failures of the state government. 

“Whatever you want to throw at me, you can, but you cannot stop me from my padayatra,” Sanjay said following an incident involving a group of TRS activists attempting to block his padayatra in Vemula village of Itikyal mandal in Jogulamba Gadwal district that resulted in an altercation between the BJP and the TRS workers.

“If the Chief Minister wants to highlight his so-called achievements, he too can undertake a padayatra and meet people. Nobody is stopping him. What is our fault? Is it that we are highlighting the plight of people under TRS rule? Just because of this, will the TRS people attack us?” Sanjay asked.

Sanjay, declaring that the TRS rule in Telangana was on its last legs, predicted that it would not last longer than six months.

“If true rule of people has to come in Telangana, then governance from palatial homes must come to an end. This government owes `60,000 crore to power utilities, and is not in a position to pay. It will be the BJP government that will come to power and do so,” he said.

“I have been on the road for five days now, meeting people and finding out their lives and difficulties. During the first phase of my padayatra, I learnt a lot about the problems faced by people. This is the second phase now. My padayatra is not for votes or seats. I am here to meet people to understand how challenging their lives have become,” he said.

The government, he said, was foisting cases on BJP leaders and workers irrespective of the issue they were highlighting. “Whether it was about GO 317, of housing for the poor, or podu farmers’ problems, we have been targeted, lathi-charged, and jailed. But we have not lost heart and will continue to highlight the misdeeds of this government,” he said.