Training his guns at the Congress, he said that the grand old party now has to implement all its assurances in 100 days as it had promised.
Published Dec 24, 2023 | 5:10 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 24, 2023 | 5:11 PM
BRS working president KT Rama Rao. (X)
BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Sunday, 24 December, said that even though his party lost the recent Telangana Assembly election, it was not such a huge disaster altogether.
“The difference in vote-share between the BRS and the Congress was a mere 1.85 percent. The BRS lost seven to eight seats by a narrow margin of about 4,000-5,000 votes. The defeat of the party in the elections is only a speed-breaker,” he said.
KTR was speaking after presenting what he said was Swedha Patram, a “White paper” on the state’s progress during the BRS’ 10-year rule.
Training his guns at the Congress, he said that the grand old party now has to implement all its assurances in 100 days as it had promised.
“The Congress has already slipped on unemployment assistance. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said in the Assembly that his party had never promised it. People are watching you keenly,” said KTR.
He said the Congress was speaking about six guarantees but it had made a total of 142 promises.
“We will constitute a shadow team, department-wise. Like in other countries, we will also have a shadow Cabinet. Whenever the government flounders, we will take it to the notice of the people,” he said.
He said it was up to the Congress whether they use the power in their hands for the welfare of the people or to wreak vengeance on the BRS.
“We are not worried even if the government resorts to vendetta. We are ready for any inquiry,” he said.
He recalled the BRS itself demanding an inquiry into various allegations that were being made against its leaders.
The former minister said that in every victory and defeat, there will be lessons to learn. “We have to realise where we have gone wrong and take corrective measures,” he said.
Watch live: BRS Party Working President @KTRBRS giving a PowerPoint presentation (Swedha Pathram). https://t.co/ihhEoqvcbX
— BRS Party (@BRSparty) December 24, 2023
He admitted that the BRS had committed minor mistakes which had proved to be costly. The youth seemed to have been carried away by the campaign of misinformation by the Congress, he said.
“We should have reacted then itself. If the employees’ salaries are being delayed it is because of the impact of Covid-19 for two years which had a cascading impact on the state’s finances. I request the employees to understand the problem,” he said.
The BRS’ inability to explain to various sections of people what it had really done for them had cost them the elections, he claimed.
“For instance, employees in Telangana are the highest paid but we could not make them aware of the fact. Similarly, we have filled more government vacancies than in any other state. There was a vicious campaign against us on YouTube but we did not take steps to set the record straight.
In his PowerPoint presentation earlier, he said the BRS not only helped Telangana state get an identity but also created valuable assets for it.
He said he was releasing the BRS “Swedha Patram” because the Congress had tried to tarnish the image of the party and the state with a false narrative.
He said an attempt was made to portray that “Telangana is a failure” by the Congress.
“On the contrary, it was a state that had been built brick-by-brick by the BRS led by the then chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. Despite heavy odds, the BRS led the state on the road to development and prosperity. We took the state from crisis to abundance and from destruction to development,” the former minister said.
He said that the Congress tried to paint a picture in the Assembly that ₹4.98 lakh crore had been spent on the Telangana region during the 60 years of rule prior to the formation of Telangana state in 2014.
“In the last 10 years, the BRS government had spent ₹13.72 lakh crore. The value of assets in the power sector was ₹6.87 lakh crore. The white paper released by the state government was a tissue of white lies. The outstanding debt of the state government was only ₹3.17 lakh crore,” he said.
But, KTR said, the Congress government had inflated the figures and tried to show that the outstanding debt was ₹6.71 lakh crore. The government had shown the loans raised by corporations also as the state government’s debt, he said.
As regards the civil supplies department, the outstanding debt is only ₹21,029 crore, he said.
Tracing the history of the Telangana movement, the former minister said the demand for a separate state took birth when the rulers of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, after its formation in 1956, set aside the gentleman’s agreement and began spending the revenue generated in the Telangana region in Andhra region.
“This led to the demand for a separate Telangana state. The two committees headed by Justice Lalit Kumar and Justice Vashista Bhargav had vindicated the Telangana people’s argument,” he said.
Recalling the reign of repression on the people of Telangana under the previous Congress regimes, he said: “It was against this oppression that KCR rose with a clenched fist and led the movement for a separate Telangana state,” KTR said.
“The Congress leaders who were nowhere to be seen during the struggle for a separate state, were now talking as if they were the architects of Telangana,” he added.
KTR also played a video which captured the mood of the movement and the sacrifices made by the Telangana activists. The video also showed how many times the BRS people’s representatives had resigned and were again re-elected in by-elections which sought to show that their Telangana credentials were impeccable.
