Guarantees will win Telangana for Congress, says Gehlot

Hyderabad: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday said that the six promises made to the people of Telangana by the Congress were more impressive than those in other states, and expressed confidence that the Congress will come to power in the state with a comfortable majority.

Addressing a press conference in Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday, Gehlot said that the victory of the Congress in all the five states —Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram —is certain. Gehlot stated that the Congress had won in all the states where it made promises or given guarantees and this will be repeated in the five states on December 3.

He said the Six Guarantees evoked good response from people of Telangana and they would ensure the Congress victory over the BRS government, which is mired in corruption and scams.

He said that the success mantra of the party and new AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge was to make promises and work to fulfil them.

He said Telangana state was formed by the Congress as a 'revenue-surplus state' in 2014 but the BRS government turned it into a 'debt-ridden state' in the last 10 years with its misrule, corruption and family rule. "Had a Congress government been formed in Telangana 10 years ago after party leader Sonia Gandhi fulfilled her promise on the creation of a separate state of Telangana, it would have reached greater heights," Gehlot said.

"No one in the BRS government takes governance seriously. The CM and ministers don't function from the Secretariat. They take rest in farmhouses and luxurious houses and run the government from there. With this, Telangana lacked good governance and people remained the worst affected as the welfare schemes and development programmes were hit," Gehlot alleged.

Referring to incidents of question paper leakage, he said paper leaks occurred in several states including Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat but Rajasthan was the only state that passed stringent laws including life imprisonment for those indulging in paper leaks.

Dubbing the BRS and the BJP as 'natural friends', Gehlot said they are working together along with the AIMIM to defeat the Congress in Telangana.

He alleged that the BJP has been adopting a policy of toppling governments led by other parties wherever they don't get a majority by purchasing MLAs.  He recalled how the Congress governments in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh were toppled by BJP through horse trading of MLAs.

He accused the BJP government at the Centre of misusing central agencies like CBI, I-T, ED to target opposition parties and to settle political scores due to which these agencies are losing their credibility.