He asserted that the Telangana identity, built by BRS founder-president K Chandrashekar Rao, belongs exclusively to the party.
Published Jan 03, 2024 | 10:20 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 03, 2024 | 10:20 PM
BRS working president KT Rama Rao. (File pic)
The BRS is ardently determined to safeguard the Telangana identity from slipping into the hands of the ruling Congress party.
BRS working president KT Rama Rao addressed the media after a rigorous six-hour review of the party’s status during the first Lok Sabha constituency-wise meetings on Wednesday, 3 January.
He emphatically asserted that the Telangana identity, built by BRS founder-president K Chandrashekar Rao, belongs exclusively to the party.
KTR revealed the slogan for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections: “Telangana Balam, Telangana Galam, and Telangana Dalam” (strength, voice, and contingent).
The emphasis on Telangana in KTR’s words betrays his anxiety that the ruling Congress might hijack the claim to the Telangana identity, with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy frequently speaking about Telangana martyrs and avowing to rectify perceived injustices under the BRS dispensation.
KTR said that party leader KCR will continue to be the face and identity of Telangana even though the BRS has lost power. The people, who voted the BRS out of power, were now saying that they were pained to realise that KCR was no longer the chief minister, he said.
KTR added that it may take another four weeks for KCR to resume visiting the party office and guide the party leaders.
Though he is resting now, convalescing from a hip replacement surgery, he is still helping and chaperoning the party workers on how to go about preparing for the Lok Sabha elections, KTR said.
KTR said that the BRS’s defeat was not as disastrous as the ruling party was trying to portray. “The difference in voting percentage is less than two. It is 1.88, which translates to about five lakh votes. We will bounce back in time for the Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
KTR appealed to the people of Telangana that if they wanted Telangana’s interests voiced in Parliament, then their best bet was the BRS and not the Congress or the BJP.
Reeling out instances when the BJP and Congress did not utter a word when injustice was being done to Telangana, he said that it was the BRS which stalled the proceedings of the Parliament and fought valiantly against the ruling dispensation at the Centre.
The BRS working president said that the party has come up with a book containing 420 promises that the Congress has made to the people.
“We will bring pressure on the Congress to implement them within 100 days, a target the party has set for itself. Of 100 days, one month is already over. We will not let the Congress and the people forget the promises,” he said.
The former IT minister said that the meetings that had been scheduled to discuss the status of the party in Lok Sabha constituencies in the state were intended to obtain the impartial opinion of the party workers and leaders on the issues that had hamstrung the party in the recent elections.
“We have received several suggestions of how to tone up the party and also the factors that led to the poor performance in some segments. We will present these opinions and suggestions to KCR and all decisions will be taken collectively. There would be no unilateral decisions,” he said.
He added that even in the finalisation of the candidates for the Lok Sabah seats, opinions would be elicited from the party workers before taking any decision.
KTR said that the party activists who gave suggestions did not mince words and told the party leadership what should be done going forward.
“They said that there was no second opinion on development that had taken place under the BRS dispensation in the state in several sectors including power, agriculture, drinking water, and irrigation. They said what the party needed was a little bit of touching up here and there as the main superstructure was still very strong. Some party functionaries felt that the party should have taken more care of some minor grey areas that had finally cost the party,” said KTR.
He said, in the dissection of the factors that led to the party’s defeat, it had come to his notice that the party could not effectively rebut the charges and misinformation campaign that the Congress had carried out against the BRS.
“Though Telangana is the only state in the entire country where the employees are paid the highest salaries, we could not give much publicity to it,” he said.
