The ruling TRS government is leaving no stone unturned to defeat BJP candidates in the Graduates Constituency elections for the Legislative Council by misusing official machinery and spending money, and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao personally is planning the campaign, charged senior BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy on Monday.
“Never before a Chief Minister got involved so much in a Graduates Constituency election which had our party stalwarts like V. Rama Rao and others winning consistently to the Upper House as the voice of the intellectuals. But this time, the TRS wants to stop us even if it means defeat of their own party candidate,” he said, in a series of public meetings in Mahabubnagar and Naryanpet and in media interactions.
The Minister has been campaigning in support for party candidate and incumbent MLC N. Ramchander Rao for the Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy-Mahabubnagar Graduates constituency. Pointing out that Mr. Rao had won the poll in 2015 when the TRS popularity was high and against an employees union leader, he said since then there has been a sea change in the political climate with every section “sick and tired” of the “corrupt and dictatorial family regime.” He appealed for re-election of Mr. Rao with bigger majority and recalled his public service record from the student days when he had courted arrest in the agitations for many a public cause.
“Neither Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao nor his son K.T. Rama Rao have any moral right to question his record. In fact, they should answer why not a single teacher has been recruited in the last six years,” he said.
Mr. Reddy is convinced that TS people have been seeking a change to “free themselves from the clutches of the KCR and Owaisi families stranglehold” and this is evident during the Parliament elections when the party had won four seats. It could have won more if it read the the people’s pulse properly when every section like the educated, employees, youth and others have turned against them, he observed.The TRS leadership was “feeling threatened and fearing the loss of power” ever since the results of Dubbak bypoll and GHMC elections, hence trying every trick to win the elections. But, he was confident of the graduates supporting the party candidates and herald the beginning of end of the TRS regime.
The Centre is supporting every project and scheme in the State, including foodgrain procurement, supply of fertilizer etc., developing NHS and another ₹17,000 crore more is proposed to be spent. However, the government is been dragging its feet in providing land and funds for many works like the MMTS phase two, expansion of AIIMS and so on, he said.
Vice president D.K. Aruna was present.
