Dalita Bandhu not for polls: KCR slams Opposition

Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao lashed out at his opponents for their criticism that he was launching new schemes only when elections were round the corner.

Rao was reacting to allegations that he chose Huzurabad constituency to launch new scheme ‘Dalita Bandhu’ with an eye on the upcoming bypoll.

"What's wrong with it? In a democracy, every party wants to gain votes and come to power. The TRS is a political party. It is not a party of sanyasis who renounced everything. We are not living in the Himalayas. A ruling party definitely has certain advantages and it will certainly exploit it to win elections and retain power," Rao remarked, while addressing a meeting at Telangana Bhavan on Wednesday after formally inducting former Congress leader from Huzurabad Padi Kaushik Reddy and his followers into the TRS.

Kaushik Reddy and his followers were upbeat over the presence of none other than party chief K. Chandrashekar Rao in their joining programme. Normally, the Chief Minister attends such programmes when the leaders joining the TRS are either senior-most or his contemporaries.

Party sources say the priority being given to Kaushik Reddy, a 36-year youth leader, who is not even an MLA so far, by Chandrashekar Rao indicates that Kaushik Reddy has taken centre stage not only in the TRS but also in Telangana politics.

Welcoming Kaushik Reddy into the TRS fold, Chandrashekar Rao assured a 'bright political future' for him in the TRS, adding that he would climb up the political ladder from constituency-level to state-level very soon.

Chandrashekar Rao said he had clearly stated that Karimnagar district held 'sentimental value' for him from where he addressed the party's first public meeting (Simhagarjana) soon after the launch of TRS in April 2001 with a single point agenda of achieving statehood for Telangana, which became a reality in 2014 and for that reason he chose Karimnagar district and Huzurabad to launch Dalita Bandhu  from where he had launched Rythu Bima and Rythu Bandhu, which too became a huge success.

"Some people are criticising me for launching Dalita Bandhu in Huzurabad with an eye on bypoll. For them, my answer is yes and ask them what's wrong with it? But I want to make it clear once again that the purpose of welfare schemes launched by me over the past seven years is for the welfare of all sections of society. I don't link every issue with elections and votes. The real elections for change of power in the state will happen after two years. Where were the elections when I launched Mission Bhagiratha, KCR Kits, Dharani etc. They were done for the good of people. When Opposition parties want to derive political benefits in elections without doing anything, why not we, as a ruling party, should do it?  Chandrashekar Rao asked.

He said if he was such a 'selfish person', he would have launched Dalita Bandhu in his Gajwel constituency itself.