Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) senior leader and Minister T. Harish Rao has said that vengeance has never been the motive of BRS and its leadership or else Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president A. Revanth Reddy would have been in jail now for his involvement in the cash-for-vote scam when he was with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
He made the comments during his visit to Narayankhed in Sangareddy district on Tuesday. Citing the example of neighbouring States such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, he said it had been the norm to send those in the opposition to jail on one reason or another. However, the focus of the BRS government had always been and would always be the progress of the State and not on targeting the leaders of Opposition parties.
Mr. Rao said it was the same Revanth Reddy who had termed then AICC president Sonia Gandhi as “bali devatha” (goddess seeking sacrifices) while he was with Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and pointed out that it was he who had accused the then Congress government of not supplying power to the farm sector even for six hours a day. But, it was Mr. Revanth Reddy who was singing a different tune now hailing Ms. Gandhi as a goddess.
On the comments of another AICC leader Rahul Gandhi that it was in his DNA to fight the BJP, Mr. Harish Rao sought to know from the former as to what was in the DNA of Mr. Revanth Reddy as he was with the BJP first and then switched over the TRS (BRS), TDP and the Congress.
Speaking at Sangareddy earlier in the day, he asked the Telangana electorate to make a choice between those who fought for Statehood to the region and those who aimed guns at the activists who raised voice for the statehood.
He alleged that the Congress was owning the approach of cash-for-vote and note-for-seat and its present State president did not resign his MLA’s post, when he was with the TDP, on the lines of the then State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with those of the Congress when the BRS (TRS) MLAs and others had quit their posts in support of the statehood demand, when the movement was at its peak.
Stating that Congress had the history of making false promises, Mr. Rao said the latest example was that in Karnataka, where it had promised 10-hour supply to farming but struggled to give it even for five hours a day, that too in three spells. On the other hand, the BRS Government in Telangana was given round-the-clock supply to farming.
On the Congress talk of scrapping the Dharani, online land records management system, introduced by the BRS government, Mr. Harish Rao sought to know whether the party was planning to bring back the “Patel-Patwari” system, if voted to power.
