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The Hindu
The Hindu
National
R. Ravikanth Reddy

BJP seeks answers from Kharge on BRS-Congress alleged friendship

Telangana BJP President and Union Minister for Tourism, G. Kishan Reddy said that Congress and the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) had become best friends in a deal brokered by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party and a vote to the Congress was a gift to the BRS party.

In response to All India Congress Committee (AICC) President, Mallikarjun Kharge’s comments at the Chevella ‘Maha Garjana’ meeting on Saturday where he termed BJP and the BRS as one, Mr. Reddy said voters were very well aware that a vote to the Congress Party is a seat gifted to the BRS party.

He also ridiculed Mr. Kharge’s charge that Chief Minister, K. Chandrashekhar Rao never appeared on any anti-BJP platform, and said the BRS and Congress have always been partners working in tandem. “The Congress Party and the family in their hatred for Narendra Modi will go to any extent to defeat the BJP including sacrificing their own party and transferring their votes to a corrupt and ineffective KCR,” he said.

Posing several questions to Mr. Kharge and seeking answers from him, he argued that the BRS recently gave 10 acres of prime property to the Congress Party for ₹2 lakhs when there was no land for the poor for the 2 BHK Housing scheme. Can Mr. Kharge deny this?

He said Telangana Congress MLAs joined the BRS without even resigning from the party. Have there been any serious efforts by the Congress party to get these MLAs disqualified? Or is this a part of the internal understanding between BRS and Congress?

Similarly, both the parties worked together in the Presidential elections against Draupadi Murmu and can the Congress confirm that it would not seek BRS support in opposing the Uniform Civil Code? In the recent Monsoon session of Parliament BRS and Congress came together to vote in the No Confidence motion in the Lok Sabha in August 2023. Can Congress still deny this?

The Minister further reminded that in the Congress-led UPA Government, Mr. KCR was a Union Minister at the Centre and the two parties had a pact at the state level in the undivided state. Has the Congress-BRS relationship not continued to flourish since then?

Mr. Kharge should answer these questions and his silence will only reconfirm to the people of Telangana that the Congress-BRS alliance was out in the open in Telangana.

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