Aruna pooh poohs reports of her joining TRS

Former Minister says such propaganda is part of character assassination; she comes down heavily on the TRS

Hyderabad: Former Minister D K Aruna rubbished reports of her joining the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and described this as an attempt of ‘character assassination’. She also refuted that there was pressure on her to join the ruling party.

Responding to a question at media point on the Assembly premises on Tuesday, she described it as a conspiracy to demoralise the party men who still continue to have faith in the party’s leadership. She explained that there was no need for her to answer such questions. Unnecessary propaganda was being made, without any confirmation with her over the issue, she clarified.

“There is an attempt of character assassination by vested interest,” she said. On losing the by-election of Narayankhed, the Congress leader held that the body language of the Chief Minister, who had taken part in the last rites of former MLA P Kista Reddy provided ‘glimpse of his greed’.

She recalled that the Congress had requested the ruling party to unanimously declare a family member of the deceased MLA as his successor, but unfortunately Chandrashekar Rao had some other plans in his mind. “The ruling party had coerced everyone into submission in most of the villages, hence these results,” she quipped.

Demanding compensation to the farmers facing drought, Aruna felt that the government machinery was more focused on ensuring TRS winning election after election, but failed to provide any relief to the farming community.

She pointed out that in Mahbubnagar alone there were 46 mandals declared drought-hit, but not even a single penny was released by the government. The government had pushed the farmers depending on Jurala project to the brink, by closing down the canal, which supported irrigation. This had led to damage of all kinds of crops from paddy to chilli, she added.

Over the issue of reorganisation of districts, the Gadwal MLA demanded that her constituency be made into another district, as the town had all the basic infrastructure facilities, fulfilling the criteria of becoming district capital.