Telangana BJP president G. Kishan Reddy on Thursday has accused the Congress Party of deliberately trying to create confusion in the minds of the voters by spreading canards about the saffron party having an understanding with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
“This is being done to cut into the anti-incumbency votes to benefit the BRS with the Majlis Party acting as the middleman. I challenge Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi for a public debate on who is the ‘B’ team – Congress or BJP - to the BRS, either at the Press Club in Delhi or Hyderabad,” he said.
Mr. Reddy, also the Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast Region, addressing a press conference in New Delhi, was responding to Mr. Gandhi’s accusation that the BJP is the ‘B’ team of the BRS and demanded to give a single example to substantiate his allegation.
“Mr. Gandhi was just reading a prepared script without understanding the ground realities. Is it not a fact that the Congress Party and BRS held talks for a merger in 2013 during the meeting with Sonia Gandhi. Was TRS/BRS not part of the Manmohan Singh Government at the Centre? Didn’t eight Congress Party MLAs in 2014 and 12 in 2018 as well as the MLCs including the floor leader join the BRS?,” he questioned.
The BRS Government has not been pursuing the “vote for note” case against Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy and alleged that it was because Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has been “protecting him” and this was also part of a deal between both parties.
“It is clear who is the ‘B’ team for BRS and Telangana people are not easily fooled. The DNA of Congress Party, BRS and Majlis Party is the same. The BJP has never joined forces with the BRS and will not do so ever,” he asserted.
The Congress leaders Mr. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and others should first “apologise” to the Telangana people accepting the “mistakes” made when their government was in power to the state with “inept” decisions and seek “forgiveness” at the Bhagyalakshmi Temple near Charminar before commenting on BJP, he said.
The Minister said a meeting is scheduled with national president J.P. Nadda to do a preliminary exercise on selection of candidates for the Assembly elections. The Central Parliamentary Board will finalise the list, he added.
False Cases
Later, in another press conference in Hyderabad, former MLC N. Ramchander Rao, has accused the government of “politicising” the suicide of the young unemployed woman, Marri Pravalika, and filing false cases against party leaders like Rajya Sabha MP K. Laxman and BJYM president Bhanu Prakash.
“This is an insensitive and anti-youth government. It is squarely responsible for the suicide of the young woman due to lack of employment opportunities. We are not going to be intimidated by the false cases and will stand by the youth for their legitimate rights. If we come to power we will address the employment issue on a war footing by conducting examinations on the lines of the UPSC,” he promised.
