KCR's popularity on the decline, says Congress leader Gudur Narayana Reddy

Hyderabad: PCC treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy on Wednesday said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's popularity is on decline.

Addressing a press conference, Narayana Reddy said that the Chief Minister was confined to Pragathi Bhavan enjoying a lavish lifestyle and taking very little interest in administration. Citing a recent survey done by a familiar national agency, he said that KCR ranked 16th among 31 Chief Ministers in the country in terms of performance-based popularity.

He said KCR scored a mere 54 per cent in the survey. This percentage would have been much lower if the survey was done on local parameters, he said.

Narayana Reddy said that the survey's findings were very close to reality, if not exact. He said KCR has lost sense of accountability towards people. "KCR apparently feels that he is not answerable to anyone for anything. He is neither listening to opposition parties nor answering questions from the media." "The dictatorial attitude got embedded in his character to the extent that he is considering everyone who is questioning his decisions as his personal enemy. Except for a few selected persons, he barred the entry of Ministers, MLAs, MLCs and senior officials in Pragathi Bhavan which consequently resulted in administration coming to a halt. He has used deception, cheating and lies as his weapons to stay in power. Now he is surrounded either by sycophants or security personnel," the Congress leader said.

Gudur said KCR should have come up with a progress report on his government's the performance in the last six years. Instead, he said, KCR was patting his own back and giving himself full marks for an exam which he did not write.

"KCR is acting both like a candidate and examiner. He is setting his own question paper, conducting exams, playing the role of invigilator and then correcting his own answer sheet," he said, adding that the habit of self-praise has turned Telangana into an 'Andher Nagari' and KCR into 'Choupat Raja'.