Congress leaders, here on Thursday, exhorted the graduate voters to elect the party’s senior leader and former Minister T. Jeevan Reddy by giving their first preferential vote in the Karimnagar MLC Graduates’ Constituency elections on March 22.
Speaking at a joint press conference, AICC secretary Madhu Yaskhi Goud said that Jeevan Reddy is a seasoned politician and served as Minister twice and MLA six times. He was better aware of public problems and had fought on several issues on the floor of the Assembly and outside. For the existence of democracy there should be a strong and responsible Opposition, he said.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, despite having absolute majority in Assembly, was engineering defections from other parties with an intention to eliminate the Opposition. To resist KCR’s unethical and autocratic rule someone should raise voice in the Houses and if Jeevan Reddy is elected he would fight on behalf of the people, he said.
MLC Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that there was no Opposition voice in the Legislative Council and KCR, after promising that he would abide by the Constitution, this time violated all rules by encouraging defections to his party.
If Congress, during its rule, wanted to do such acts TRS would have disappeared, he said.
He sought to remind that in 2013 Mohamood Ali, now the Home Minister, was elected MLC with the support of 18 Congress members. Similarly, K. Kesava Rao was elected to Rajya Sabha with the support of Congress when the TRS had just 13 members in the Assembly in 2014, he said, adding that KCR forgot all these facts.
Accusing the Chief Minister of acting undemocratically, MLA D. Sreedhar Babu said that the TRS was intolerant of Opposition voice in both the Houses.
Mr. Jeevan Reddy said that unemployed graduates and the educated played a key role in the achievement of Telangana State, but they were unhappy now after formation of the State.
Appealing to the graduate voters to vote for him in these elections he promised that he would take up the issues of unemployment, IR and PRC and old pension scheme for employees and so on.
