TRS claim on forming government hollow: Ponnala Lakshmaiah

April 13, 2014 11:34 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 08:50 pm IST - KARIMNAGAR:

Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah Photo: C_V_SUBRAHMANYAM

Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah Photo: C_V_SUBRAHMANYAM

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Ponnala Lakshmaiah has termed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) claim that it would form the government in the new State as “hollow.”

"TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself is shifting constituencies. That shows how strong his party is. Why did he shift from Karimnagar to Mahabubnagar and now why is he contesting from another seat?" the TPCC president sought to know in an interview to The Hindu here on Sunday.

Tears into KCR

The very mention of TRS, which was till recently a friendly party of the Congress, almost touched a raw nerve in Mr. Lakshmaiah who would not stop at taking pot-shots at the TRS chief. “Where was KCR when a section of the Congress agitated for separate Talangana in 1969? Even when he was an MLA or a Minister or a Deputy Speaker, he never said or did anything for Telangana. He floated the party only when a Cabinet berth was denied to him,” Mr. Lakshmaiah pointed out.

The TRS, he said, had been losing ground as it had lost the MLC polls and that it would fare badly in the local body elections too. "Do you think people would believe if TRS says that it is going to form the government?" the US-educated mechanical engineer asked, hardly concealing his contempt for Mr. Rao.

Congress still popular

He said the keen competition for getting a party nomination for elections to local bodies, municipalities, Assembly and Parliament showed how popular the Congress is. His party was totally committed to formation of Telangana. "My leader (Sonia Gandhi) declared our commitment at the Karimnagar public meeting in 2004 and now she is coming again to tell people that the party stood by what it had promised. People remember that and they would vote for us. That's why I say that the TRS claim is hollow."

To a question on the TRS and BJP staking claim for gaining statehood for Telangana, the TPCC president argued that people were aware of how the BJP, which sought votes on ‘one-vote two-states’ slogan, went back once they were pressured by the TDP during NDA rule. "Now the TDP and BJP are together. It's an alliance of the Telangana betrayers. People would teach them a lesson,” he said.

‘TRS family-controlled party’

Asked to comment on the TRS chief’s claim that the Congress had copied its manifesto, Mr. Lakshmaiah said: “It has been reduced to a party which is controlled by family members alone. It's a ‘daughter-son-nephew party’ which is now talking about reconstruction of Telangana." On the TRS slogan that it would reconstruct Telangana, Mr. Lakshmaiah asked: "What reconstruction is he talking about? Telangana was not bombed like Hiroshima or Nagasaki to be reconstructed. There is already world-class development. We have set up a thermal power plant in Bhupalpally. We have the world's second lift irrigation scheme in Telangana. The Congress is aiming to making it a ‘Bangaru (golden) Telangana." If the Congress had such an opinion about the TRS why did it try for an alliance at all?

"The Congress is broad-minded. When India got independence it invited Babasaheb Ambedkar of Republican Party to draft the Constitution. It was a gesture to invite the TRS to be a partner in creating a new era. That was the spirit. It was not just political parties that agitated for the State, every section of society longed for separate Telangana. That's why we wanted everybody to be part of the effort," he said.

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