“My son used to wear white kurta and pyjama and declare that he would become an MLA. I used to warn him that I would not pay his fee if he goes into politics,” recalled P. Shankaramma, mother of Srikantachary, who sacrificed his life for the cause of Telangana.
But fate has pitch-forked her into the electoral battle and she is now the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) nominee from Huzurnagar Assembly constituency. Ms. Shankaramma is facing a formidable opponent in Housing Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, who is seeking re-election from the seat.
Taking time off during her hectic electioneering in the constituency, she told
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“What is the point of having leaders who don’t recognise martyrs?” she questioned.
Ms. Shankaramma, who broke down while recalling the final moments of her son’s martyrdom in 2009, hit out at Telangana Congress leaders and accused them of never speaking about martyrs.
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On the other hand, they foisted cases on thousands of students who said “Jai Telangana”.
Finally, Congress president Sonia Gandhi agreed to carve out Telangana because of the fast by TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and the sacrifices made by students.
She said Srikantachary used to keep the photo of KCR and worship him. Right from school days, he had concern for the poor and used to donate clothes and pay fees.
He always believed that politicians were using the poor as vote-banks.
“He used to say that we will get water if we get Telangana,” she reminisced.
Expressing confidence that she would emerge victorious, Ms. Shankaramma said the government should provide a job to a member in each martyr’s family, pension to parents, compensation of Rs.10 lakh to each family, a house and five acres of land.
TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao will definitely implement all this if TRS forms the government.