Hyderabad: Pivoting the BJP’s election campaign in Telangana to the Backward Classes (BC), Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that his party would make a BC community leader Chief Minister of the state if voted to power.
Addressing a public meeting at Suryapet, Shah said, "Being family-based parties, neither the BRS nor the Congress can develop Telangana; only the BJP can do that. While KCR works to make his son CM, Sonia (Gandhi) is only interested in making Rahul (Gandhi) PM of the country. But it is the BJP which works for the welfare of the poor."
The announcement by the BJP to make a BC candidate the CM seems to mark a shift in its strategy. It has given tickets to 20 BC community candidates out of the 52 that were announced in its first list.
Flaying Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao for unfulfilled promises, Shah said, “He failed to keep his word to make a Dalit the CM. The promise to give three acres of land to Dalits was not kept. The promises to allot Rs 50,000 crores for the welfare of SCs and Rs 10,000 crores for weaker sections were not kept. The credit for forming a BC commission and giving it full status goes to the BJP."
Reeling out details of what the BJP-led Centre had done for Telangana, the Union minister said the Narendra Modi government has announced Sammakka-Saralakka University for tribals and turmeric board to help farmers get a better price.
“We reconstituted the Krishna water disputes tribunal to reallocate water. We have been giving Rs6,000 crores to farmers as part of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi every year. We are ensuring clean drinking water through the Jal Jeevan Mission. We worked to protect the self-respect of women by building toilets. We are giving five kgs of rice free of cost,” he said.
Shah said a new temple is being built for Lord Rama in Ayodhya, where the idol has been lying in a tent for 550 years, and asked the people to vote for BJP candidates as part of making Modi the PM again.
Addressing the meeting, Union minister and BJP state president G. Kishan Reddy said the party would build an industrial corridor between Hyderabad and Vijayawada if it came to power. “The Centre has spent Rs1.2 lakh crores for developing highways and laying six-lane roads in Telangana. It is the Centre which is funding the panchayats and municipalities."
Recalling that Suryapet was the centre for the struggle against the Nizam government, Kishan Reddy said the credit for observing Hyderabad Liberation Day in the state went to Amit Shah.
“Once we win, we will provide free health and education facilities to people. A crop insurance scheme will be implemented in which both land-owning farmers and tenant farmers will be included. The party will make special efforts to root out corruption. Unlike the CM who stays in the farmhouse, we will be at the service of the people," Kishan Reddy said.
Referring to comments Rahul Gandhi, said, “He does not know the history of the Telangana struggle and does not have an understanding of people’s aspirations. He only reads the script written by others. The Congress is the B-team of the BRS. It is the BRS and the Congress which have had alliances. Rahul had run the previous government by remote control."
Party Rajya Sabha member and OBC Morcha president Dr K. Laxman, welcoming the announcement of a BC community Chief Minister, said, "This is a good announcement for the people of Telangana. There is no chance for BCs to come up politically in the BRS and the Congress."
Earlier, K.S. Yesuratnam, a former BRS MLA, joined the party. "Ratnam is a Dalit leader who has secured a special place for himself in the heart of Telangana people,” Kishan Reddy said.
Present at the event were Zafar Islam, Premender Reddy, party candidate Gudur Narayana Reddy (Bhongir), Kankanala Niveditha Reddy (Nagarjunasagar) Jathoth Hussain Naik (Mahbubnagar) and Kadiyam Ramachandraiah (Thungathurthy).
