KCR is the face of BRS for CM, let opposition declare their candidates, dares KTR

HYDERABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and Minister for IT and Industries KT Rama Rao (KTR) dared the opposition parties to declare their Chief Minister candidates ahead of the 2024 elections.

Interacting with the media on Thursday, KTR said that the party would face 2024 elections in the name of K Chandrashekar Rao, and he would be the next Chief Minister of the state.

“Our leader will achieve a hattrick and will be Chief Minister, who is already the longest serving Chief Minister,” he said adding that he would really love to see if the opposition parties — the Congress and the BJP — could declare their candidates.

Predicting a pounding of opposition parties at the hands of the BRS, the minister expressed confidence that the party would achieve 90-100 seats in the ensuing Assembly elections. “With just three Assembly seats, the BJP is close to becoming extinct in Telangana. We will win Dubbaka, Goshamahal, and Huzurabad seats too this time. The present MLAs will not return to the Assembly,” he explained.

Device a model to reward states that achieved population control

Reiterating his stand on the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats and the gross injustice that the population-based delimitation would spell on southern states, KTR said that India must think of better alternatives. “For instance, in the US, there is a two-senator system for each state whether the state has a higher or a lower population,” he added.

“Why is the southern part of the country that contributes 36 percent of India’s GDP penalised for being prudent and states like Uttar Pradesh with their increased number of MP seats with the sheer strength on unwieldy population dictate terms on us in the parliament,” KTR pointed out.

He further argued that in the future if Hyderabad had more seats compared to lesser populated districts like Adilabad, the people of that district could protest the misrepresentation. “Hence there must be a way out, a healthy debate on the dangers of making population as a benchmark for devolution of taxes,” KTR said.

Open to probe on ORR contract

KTR dared TPCC President A Revanth Reddy and BJP MLA Raghunandan Rao to prove their allegations on the ORR contract issue. He said that the issue was sub judice as the MAUD had served a defamation notice on Revanth Reddy and the IRB company served notice on Raghunandan Rao. “The government is open to any investigation. Let the Enforcement Directorate or CBI investigate us. But we appeal to both parties to substantiate their allegations,” he said.

Telangana Model super hit

Summing up his 15-day visit to the UK and USA that yielded a good harvest of investment and jobs for the state, the minister for IT and Industries said that Telangana had carved a mark for itself across the world.

“We have done a great job for the state, we have secured 42,000 new jobs, and Rs 36,000 crore in investment in this visit,” he said adding that the KCR government had kept its promises of securing justice for Telangana on all the three fronts-water, employment and Funds (Neellu-Niyaamakalu-Nidhulu).

He said that 21-day-long decennial celebrations would highlight the holistic, inclusive, and balanced development achieved by the BRS government in the past nine years. “I believe that the intelligent voter will not leave the rupee note in hand for coins on the ground,” he said. He pointed out that only the able and stable government under the leadership of KCR could ensure a bright future for the people of Telangana. However health, education and Infrastructure sectors required more impetus, he opined.

He listed our Kaleshwaram project for water; Telangana topping in per capita income — Rs.3.17 lakh — spoke the achievement of funds, and hiring of 1.32 lakh government jobs, and another 80,000 in the pipeline, and creation of potential of 17.70 lakhs of private jobs ensured fulfilling the employment needs. The basic tenets on which Telangana was formed could be achieved.