Hyderabad: State BJP president and Union minister G. Kishan Reddy on Sunday dismissed the notion that the failure to arrest BRS MLC K. Kavitha implied that the BRS and BJP had an arrangement for the Assembly polls.
Citing the example of Sonia Gandhi not being arrested in the National Herald case, he asked if TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy would now imply that the Congress and the BJP had a tie-up.
Addressing media persons at the Press Club, as part of the ‘Meet The Press’ programme on Sunday, he said, “Telangana, which was secured after a long and arduous struggle, has not achieved the goals for which it was sought. A small state like Telangana could have been developed easily. But K. Chandrashekar Rao failed to keep his promises, starting with not making a Dalit community leader the CM. The state is now hostage to a family, and the voices of the people are stubbed out to the extent of mulling the idea of removing the Dharna Chowk.”
“KCR is the only CM who does not come to the Secretariat. He demolished the old secretariat owing to his astrological beliefs and built a new one, but remains unavailable to the people. The promised crop loan waiver has not provided relief to a large number of farmers. Youths have been denied jobs as either examinations were not held or were caught up in court cases,” he said.
Attacking the Kaleshwaram project, he said that its “showcase as a marvel and telecast on Discovery Channel is in shambles now” due to the sinking of the barrage.
“The project was executed with the changed design by KCR himself, who set aside objections by engineers. He even gave a PowerPoint presentation. Retired engineers went to court and aired their objections, which were set aside but have been proved right now… thousands of crores have gone down the drain,” Kishan Reddy said.
Asked if the Centre would own up for the developments concerning the Kaleshwaram project, as the design was okayed and funded by the Central financial institutions and banks, he said, “The loans were guaranteed by the state government and hence loans were given for executing the project. If the state permits the CBI, I will order a probe in the next two hours and get to the bottom of it.”
Turning his attack on the Congress, he said: “The Congress which came to power giving guarantees has failed the people of Karnataka. That state is now paying Telangana tax, forcing builders and businessmen to pay up. Guarantees which can't be implemented are being made without factoring in the economic costs.”
He said that Chandrashekar Rao could not reduce the angst among Dalit youths, as the BRS lost in Huzurabad despite launching the Dalit Bandhu scheme. “The result will be repeated in the entire state now. KCR will lose in both Gajwel and Kamareddy. The youth are disenchanted and are waiting to dislodge him.”
“I urge people to be wary of the Congress, which is far worse than the BRS. KCR is a product of Congress; it provided MLAs to the BRS in 2014 and 2018. We never aligned with the BRS. The Congress and BRS tried to stop a tribal woman from becoming President,” he said.
On why he was desisting from contesting the polls, Kishan Reddy cited the announcement of making a BC the Chief Minister of the state. Further, duties as state president are for not entering the electoral fray, he said. “We delivered the turmeric board and tribal university as promised,” he said.
He said there will be an alliance with the Jana Sena, as it is part of the NDA. “It helped us during the GHMC polls,” he said, adding the party will release its list of remaining candidates in a day or two.
