Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, on Tuesday, alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, after having “handing over Krishna water to the Andhra people” and has now offered Godavari water to the Maharastra people through lift irrigation from the SRSP — Sriramsagar project.
Obliquely referring to the Chief Minister’s speech at the BRS Nanded meeting, the BJP leader claimed that when Telangana State was eligible for 575 TMC ft of Krishna water, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao had signed a deal and accepted just 290 TMC ft share with the Andhra Pradesh government, “deceiving” the people of Telangana here.
Number of borewells had increased from 18 lakh to 28 lakh in the last eight years which was a reflection of lack of irrigation water facility to most areas, despite tall claims by the BRS government. The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh had spent ₹19,000 crore for 63 lakh tap connection whereas Telangana had spent ₹40,000 crore but potable drinking water was yet to reach majority of the population, he charged.
Street corner meetings
Mr. Sanjay Kumar was addressing a workshop held at Manneguda to train the speakers for the proposed 11,000 street corner meetings planned by the party from February 10 to 25 across Telangana. The meetings are meant to highlight the development and welfare policies of the Modi government at the Centre, failures of the BRS government and reach out to the people to strengthen the party.
The BJP leader reminded the would be speakers that the party has been consistently fighting against the KCR regime for its various “anti-people” policies and for not fulfilling promises made during the last elections like jobs for the unemployed youth, insurance for the farmers, two-bedroom houses for the poor, land for the Dalits and so on.
“The media is in control of KCR, but we can make use of social media and word of the mouth. There is no need to feel shy about having small meetings because our party had reached the current stage with stalwarts like former Prime Minister Vajpayee, former Deputy PM L. K. Advani and others had addressed such meetings,” he said and added, new leadership could be unearthed in the process.
‘Gaining strength’
The Karimnagar Member of Parliament said the party has been gaining strength as has been reflected by the victories in GHMC polls and most of the byelections held to the Assembly. “Hence, if we take up the street corner meetings in the right earnest, we can easily win the next elections. We have already succeeded in making KCR move out of his farmhouse and interact with the people. KCR has broken his emotional connection with Telangana with the formation of BRS,” he said.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar charged the BRS and the AIMIM with being on the same side, but there was an effort to fool the people to show it is not so. “I challenge the MIM to contest all the 119 Assembly constituencies, we will make sure they will forfeit deposits. We need bring a Ram Rajya and throw out the Razakar rule,” he said.
The BJP will provide housing to the poor, insure crops with the help of Centre and ensure free healthcare to the eligible beneficiaries, if voted for power, he added. Senior leaders like ex-MPs Vijayashanti, Dr. Narasiah Goud, Ravindra Naik and others were present.
