Congress government will not last more than a year, claims KCR

Hyderabad, April (IANS) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) President K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday predicted that the Congress government in Telangana will not last more than a year "as nobody knows who will join the BJP and when".

"We don’t know, the Chief Minister (Revanth Reddy) himself may jump to the BJP," he said.

Addressing a public meeting at Sultanpur in Sangareddy as part of the party’s campaign for next month’s Lok Sabha elections, he said while they want the Congress government to complete its five-year term, considering the recent developments, he doubts if it will last more than a year.

He said that all surveys show that Congress will not get more than two Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Claiming that farmers are revolting, he said the fear in Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was evident as he was shivering at the Narayanpet public meeting.

"The Chief Minister says one thing here and goes to Delhi and on television ask people to vote for the BJP," he said.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said BRS MPs should be there in the Parliament to fulfil the aspirations of Telangana. He slammed the Congress government for insulting Dr B. R. Ambedkar by not garlanding his 125-foot statue in Hyderabad on his birth anniversary.

"Nobody from this government went to the statue to garland it and pay tributes. They did not go there because I installed the statue. I also built the Secretariat. Are they not sitting in it? I constructed the Yadadri temple. Will you shut it?" he asked.

KCR came down heavily on Congress for not implementing its promises. He recalled that the Congress had promised to waive off farm loans on December 9.

"Four months have passed but they have not waived the loans. Now they are saying they will do it by August 15. The government should immediately waive off farm loans up to Rs.2 lakh. For this, we will fight against the government,” he said and called for conducting a postcard campaign for loan waiver and bonus for paddy.

The TRS chief alleged that the Chief Minister was using abusive language for those demanding the implementation of promises.

"I was the Chief Minister for 10 years. I never spoke this kind of language. I never threatened anybody,” he said.

Claiming that the BRS government took great care of farmers, he said today farmers were worried as they are not getting money under Rythu Bandhu, benefits of Rythu Bima, and they are not even being supplied electricity to irrigate their fields.

Lashing out at the BJP, the BRS chief likened it to "useless relatives", as it had made no contribution to Telangana and its people. “Casting a vote for the BJP is like dumping your vote in the Manjira river," he said.