Congress, BJP MPs failed, Revanth failed, we lost out in budget: BRS

HYDERABAD: The BRS slammed the Centre for “completely ignoring Telangana” in the Union budget, and questioned the “silence of Congress and BJP MPs from Telangana in the Lok Sabha regarding this during the Budget presentation.

BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao told reporters at Telangana Bhavan, the party headquarters here, “we hoped that Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a Telugu daughter-in-law, would allocate significant funds to Telangana in the Central budget. Telangana was not even mentioned once in the speech.”

He said, “there was no mention of the AP Reorganisation Act assurances for Telangana in the Budget speech, despite the Budget size being `48 lakh crore. In the past, KCR requested the Centre to take decisions on nearly 35 promises made under the Reorganisation Act. We repeatedly wrote letters and made appeals, but Telangana got nothing.”

The Centre had completely ignored requests from Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his Cabinet colleagues during their visits to Delhi, he noted and said the people should think about what they had received in return for electing BJP and Congress MPs from the state.

Andhra Pradesh and Bihar which elected regional party MPs had received funds, Rama Rao said. “It is time we understand that our own political identity and strength is crucial for Telangana's development. If BRS MPs were present, they would have strongly opposed the Central government's stance,” Rama Rao said adding that the people would certainly teach the BJP government a lesson for giving zero funds despite having eight MPs from the party in the state, Rama Rao said.

He made it clear that the BRS has no issues with other states getting funds. “As a brotherly state, we wish AP well and support allocations for it.”

Rama Rao added it was “it is truly disappointing to see that only Andhra Pradesh and Bihar received funds while the remaining 26 states were overlooked.”