HYDERABAD: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Tuesday said that the Congress would win a minimum of nine and a maximum of 13 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana state. He added that the BRS would lose its deposit in up to seven seats and the BJP would win a maximum of three.
Revanth Reddy said that his seat predictions were based on the reports of voting obtained from party leaders and cadre. He also predicted that the Congress would win the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly bypoll by a 20,000-votes margin.
Now that the elections were over, Revanth Reddy said, he would shift his focus to welfare schemes, development programmes and good governance. He would start attending office at the Secretariat from Wednesday.
In an informal chat with mediapersons, the Chief Minister said there was a wave in favour of the Congress in Telangana due to the implementation of five of the Six Guarantees and his promise to waive crop loans of farmers up to `2 lakh by August 15.
He said the Congress’ aggressive campaign on the BJP's plans to abolish reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs had created a lot of impact and voters from these sections had rallied behind the Congress. He said the fight was between the Congress and the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls in Telangana state.
“The feedback obtained from our party leaders and cadre clearly indicates that the BRS openly worked for BJP candidates in several constituencies to prevent the victory of the Congress, after the BRS leadership realised that it had no chance of winning any seat,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that he would set up an exclusive Farmers' Welfare and Development Corporation, which would take over the crop loans totalling nearly `30,000 crore before August 15, and repay banks every month for five years on behalf of the farmers. Part of earnings through the excise, stamps and registrations department would be diverted to this corporation to repay the banks.
He said farmers would be freed of the loan burden at one go by August 15.
Revanth Reddy said the Budget Session of the Legislature would be convened in July to present the full Budget in which important issues such as crop loan waiver and Rythu Bharosa will be discussed and guidelines approved for implementation.
Asked about the cap of five acres for extend Rythu Bharosa from the upcoming Kharif season in June, Revanth Reddy said, "Any decision on imposing any restrictions or framing fresh guidelines will be made after a thorough debate in the Assembly and after taking feedback from all political parties and farmers organisations. We don't take unilateral decisions like the previous BRS government," he said.
He said he would put on the fast track, after election code ended in June, projects like the Musi riverfront rejuvenation, second phase of Hyderabad Metro Rail, Regional Ring Road (RRR), growth corridors along ORR and RRR, and pharma village clusters in the place of Pharma City among others.
