KTR woos young Munugode voters with road shows

HYDERABAD: TRS working president and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao launched three days of road shows in Munugode Assembly constituency, starting with a massive rally in Choutuppal on Friday as part of the campaign for party candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy.

The rally with thousands of people and party workers covered five kilometres from Koyyalagudem village to Choutuppal town. Its highlight was the enthusiastic participation of a large number of youth.
This is for the first time that Rama Rao is holding a roadshow and campaigning for a byelection. He had only campaigned during the GHMC polls but had stayed away from the bypolls — Dubbak and Buzurabad, which the TRS lost, and Nagarjunasagar where the party won.

Party sources said the main objective of the party leadership to rope in Rama Rao for campaigning was to attract youth, who comprise 1.21 lakh voters in Munugode out of the overall 2.40 lakh in the constituency.

Party leaders have been asked to mobilise youth in large numbers for Rama Rao's roadshows till Sunday. He will cover all seven mandals in the constituency.

Touching the right chords, Rao raised the issue of jobs and unemployment in the country to attack the BJP-led government at the Centre while also highlighting the achievements of TRS government in employment creation in both government and private sectors.

"(Narendra) Modi promised to give two crore jobs per year to youth and unemployed during 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He came to power eight years ago. He should have given 16 crore jobs by now. Is there anyone in this meeting who has a job as promised by Modi? Let alone giving 16 crore jobs, Modi's privatisation of PSUs has resulted in loss of jobs as have his flawed economic policies," he alleged.

He took a dig at Modi for his reported comments in an interview that jobs such as people earning Rs 200 per day making pakodas on streets should also be considered as employment.

"Modi takes credit for providing employment to pakoda makers. I have seen several people making idli and dosa on the streets here. Do you agree that Modi provided employment to you," Rao asked.

Rama Rao listed out the steps taken by the TRS government in the last eight years to provide employment for youth in government and private sectors.

"In Dandumalkapur village near Munugode, the TRS government launched Asia's biggest industrial park spread over 580 acres to provide employment for locals in Munugode and other areas. Already 200 companies have started construction. Once they launch operations, thousands of Munugode locals will get employment," Rama Rao added.