Hyderabad: The curtains appeared to have come down over the acrimonious war of words between the BRS and the Congress over T. Harish Rao’s challenge to A. Revanth Reddy asking if the Chief Minister would quit if he fails to keep his promise of farm loan waiver by August 15, along with implementing the six guarantees in full by the same date.
Though Harish Rao, as promised, went to the Amaraveerula stupam on Friday morning with a copy of his resignation letter that would be submitted to the Speaker of the Assembly if Revanth Reddy keeps his word, the BRS leader’s actions were dismissed as a political ploy by Congress leaders, including the Chief Minister, who said if Rao was serious, then his resignation letter should have been in the proper format and not read like a rant and with conditions.
Rao had asked the Chief Minister too to come to the Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial with a resignation letter.
Reddy launched a sharp attack on Rao for “enacting a resignation drama” and called the resignation letter another ‘act of deception’ as the letter was not in the Speaker's approved format.
He, however, said that he still accepts the challenge on crop loan waiver and asked Rao to keep his resignation letter ready for submission as he is committed to waive crop loans of farmers by August 15.
“Harish Rao submitted a fake resignation letter. It's not in Speaker's format. He knows well that it holds no legal value. He is just trying to deceive the people of Telangana yet again,” the CM said. Alleging that Rao uses Martyrs Memorial “as a mask to cover up his deceit and frauds,” Revanth said, “whenever Harish wants to cheat people of Telangana, he remembers Martyrs Memorial.”
Earlier, Harish Rao told reporters at the Martyrs’ Memorial that he came with his resignation letter as per his challenge to Revanth Reddy.
“The CM has not come despite our invitation. However, it does not matter. If my demand to farmers is met and people benefit from this, there is nothing more I could want. My challenge is not about politics but about people and forcing the Congress government to keep its word,” he said.
