Sattupalli: Don’t lose K Chandrashekar Rao

Sattupalli/Yellandu : “You have 28 days to take a wise decision. You should not lose a leader like KCR. Leaders like these don’t come every time. No one had thought about Dalit Bandhu, but we brought Dalit Bandhu and now the Dalit community should take the responsibility of seeing that the BRS is back in power,” said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao at the Praja Ashirwada Sabha here on Wednesday.

In an indirect dig at Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and Tummala Nageswara Rao, who deserted the BRS recently, KCR said that there are two persons, who are saying that they will not allow any BRS leader to enter the Assembly gate from the district. “Who are they to stop? It is not these leaders who send MLAs to the Assembly. It is the people. Sandra Venkata Veeraiah will enter the Assembly for the fourth time,” he said.

The BRS chief said that though he had brought Telangana and was the Chief Minister of the state, even he would not talk in such tone and tenor. They might have got some money, but how long will this arrogance continue? This is not the fight between the individuals but between the parties, he thundered.

Taking potshots at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government, KCR said that Modi has a "mad" policy of selling or privatising PSUs, including LIC. The Chief Minister said he had designed the Dalit Bandhu scheme for Telangana after seeing the plight of Dalits, including the attacks on them in North Indian states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and PM Modi's home state, Gujarat.

KCR further said the Modi-led government had wanted to fix meters for the agricultural pumpsets and the BRS regime has not allowed it despite losing Rs 5,000 crore per annum. On the Dalit Bandhu scheme, under which the state government gives Rs 10 lakh financial assistance to start any business, KCR said even now attacks are taking place against Dalits in some North India states and also Gujarat, which prompted the government to come out with the programme to provide a helping hand to the SC people.

“Women are being raped. What is this plight? Are we a democratic country...?" KCR asked. He said some political parties used to treat Dalits as "vote banks" and have not done anything for them when they were in power.

As the constituency shares the border with neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, KCR said, "If there is a double road (big road), it is Telangana, a single road (small road) it is Andhra."

Exuding confidence that the BRS is going to win the November 30 Assembly polls ‘come what may’, KCR said if the Congress is voted to power, they will abolish the welfare schemes. Taking a swipe at AICC former president Rahul Gandhi, the CM said the Congress leader does not know about agriculture and just reads scripts written by someone else.

In Karnataka, the Congress promised 24-hour power supply to farmers but ended up giving only five hours a day. That is the Congress performance, he added.