Hyderabad: Dubbing the proposed Congress-TDP pre-poll alliance as anti-Telangana, caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao Wednesday said the opposition wants to “hand over” the State to “Andhra People” once again.
Lashing out at Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, he alleged that his Andhra Pradesh counterpart was caught red handed in the ‘cash for vote’ scam in 2015.
Naidu landed in a controversy in the wake of some news channels airing an audio recording of a purported conversation he had with a nominated legislator seeking his vote in the Legislative Council elections in 2015. The case is pending in court.
Speaking at a public meeting at Nizamabad, Rao also alleged that Naidu had promised Rs 500 crore and three choppers for the Congress as his contribution for the ensuing election. “These people (Congress) are touching his (Naidu) feet and trying to bring him back to Telangana. Is this what we want? He is a demon… He snatched seven mandals from us. He was writing letter to the centre to stop our projects.”
Rao said though Naidu’s party did not have any strength in Telangana, he wanted to create political instability in the State. “He was caught red handed in the cash for vote scam,” he alleged. Terming Naidu as a betrayer, Rao said the Congress was ‘shamelessly’ trying to be friendly with TDP and its chief, who destroyed the lives of Telangana people and under whose watch, hundreds of people were killed in alleged fake encounters.
“He is Telangana betrayer. If you (Congress) beg, we will give you four seats. You ( people) want to hand over power to Andhra people? Should we go to Amaravati? You should not pledge Telangana pride. Let us not bow our heads to Delhi.”
Flaying AICC General Secretary and former Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s remarks that TRS had no role in the formation of Telangana, he demanded to know who had a part in its formation. KCR said the Government was considering recording the health profile of every citizen of Telangana.
Rao claimed that Telangana had overcome the power crisis and that his Government has been spending Rs 42,000 crore on welfare schemes. He said the party’s manifesto committee was working towards increasing the pension amount to beneficiaries.
Seeking a mandate to re-elect his government, Rao claimed there was 17.17 per cent average growth in revenue collections in the past four years and 20 per cent in the first four months of the current fiscal.
Assembly polls in Telangana were originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections next year. However, the assembly was dissolved earlier this month as per a recommendation of the State cabinet, which necessitated elections ahead of the schedule.