Rahul Gandhi predicted at the rally that the people would throw out the BRS 100 days later, referring to the Telangana Assembly elections.
National-level Congress leaders at a mega rally on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Sunday, 17 September, 2023. (Supplied)
Armed with six guarantees, which are expected to constitute more or less the party’s entire manifesto for the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections in November-December this year, the Congress on Sunday, 17 September, predicted that the BRS would be thrown out of power 100 days later.
To take on Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief and Telangana Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao’s populist schemes, the Congress brought in Sonia Gandhi to make its big ticket announcement of six large-scale welfare scheme guarantees.
As the six guarantees were being announced by former Congress presidents Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and current AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge at a mammoth public meeting in Thukkuguda on Hyderabad’s outskirts, covering different strata of society, the crowd cheered them on.
We did it in Karnataka, we will do it in Telangana.
Jai Congress. Jai Telangana. #CongressVijayaBheri#Vijayabheri pic.twitter.com/MVtxoDTplv
— Telangana Congress (@INCTelangana) September 17, 2023
The mood of the party workers and the people in general who turned up for the meeting appeared very upbeat, as they probably felt they may not be far off from seeing the Congress seizing power in the state.
They appeared very excited whenever the leaders pointed out that the days of the BRS government — headed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao — were numbered, and how the BRS had entered into a covert understanding with the BJP and the AIMIM to help one another at the cost of the people.
The six guarantees unveiled by them at the public meeting are:
Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi unveiled the first guarantee, Mahalakshmi, eliciting an electrifying response.
In her brief address, she recalled why she had taken the decision to gift Telangana to its people, for which they had been fighting for decades. Now the six guarantees, of which Mahalakhsmi was one, would help in elevating the state to a new level, she added.
“I am sure the Congress will form the government in the state and work for the welfare of all sections of society,” she said.
She also got a strong response when she asked the people if they would support the Congress at the hustings and felt how happy she was to be in their midst on a day when Telangana was celebrating the anniversary of the merger of the erstwhile state of Hyderabad into the Indian Union.
Rahul Gandhi, in an incisive attack on KCR, said that the BRS chief and his family had plundered the state.
“The Congress gave Telangana not for KCR and his family to benefit from it. It was meant for you,” said Rahul, adding that after coming to power in the state, the Congress would return to the people the money that KCR and his family had allegedly looted.
He said that Congress would implement whatever it was saying, unlike KCR, who does not do what he preaches. “The government in the state will change. That is certain. The BRS government will be thrown out in 100 days,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said the BJP did not take any action against KCR though he was corrupt to the core because the saffron party and the BRS were hand in glove.
“The Central investigation agencies have registered cases against the leaders of all the Opposition parties, but no case has been registered against either KCR or the AIMIM. This is enough to prove that they are always together. The moment Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives a signal whenever he needs support to pass a bill in Parliament, the BRS members readily oblige,” he said, referring to the BRS supporting bills relating to farm laws, the election of the President and vice-president, and GST.
Rahul Gandhi said that the BRS, the BJP, and the AIMIM organised parallel meetings to observe the Hyderabad state merger or liberation day with the intention of disturbing the Congress public meeting, but they could not succeed as a mammoth crowd was in attendance.
As soon as the Congress came to power in the state, orders for all six guarantees would be issued at the very first Cabinet meeting, he added. “You can go and inquire in Karnataka. We are implementing all our promises there,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress was very clear as to who its political rivals were. He added that knowing one’s rivals and their strengths and weaknesses was a sine qua non for one to survive in politics.
“In Telangana, the Congress is not fighting the BRS alone. It is tangling with the BJP and the AIMIM,” he said.
This was significant, as the Congress usually steers clear of taking on the AIMIM lest it should hurt the minorities’ sentiments. Rahul reiterated an old allegation, that the BRS stood for BJP Rishtedar Samiti.
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