Rahul Gandhi predicts repeat of Karnataka feat by Congress, calls for defeat of BRS

KHAMMAM: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gone without a trace in Telangana the fight is in between the Congress and the BJP’s B Team, the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at the ‘Telangana Jana Garjana’ public meeting in Khammam on Sunday.

Addressing a mammoth gathering, Rahul Gandhi called upon the party cadre to follow the Karnataka model and defeat the BRS in Telangana. “Like we defeated the BJP in Karnataka, we will defeat the BRS in Telangana also. Initially, everyone thought that there would be a triangular fight in Telangana but now there is no BJP in the state, all its four tyres are punctured,” Rahul Gandi said.

Dubbing the BRS as the ‘BJP Rishtedar Samithi’, Rahul Gandhi said that the fight would be between the ultra-rich friends of the BJP and the BRS and the Congress supported by the weaker sections, minorities and the working class. “Only because the Telangana ruling party is a relative of the BJP, we have refused to attend opposition parties' meetings in New Delhi where the BRS is participating. The BRS is the B team of the BJP,” Rahul Gandhi said.

The Congress national leader also gave the Ghar Wapsi call to the Congress leaders who had left it in the past to return to the party fold if they can embrace the party's ideology. Under the Khammam Declaration, he announced that, if voted to power, the Congress would give a monthly pension of Rs 4,000 to senior citizens and the widows. He also announced that they would distribute the 'podu' lands to the tribal brethern.

Thanking the Congress cadre for their participation in Bharat Jodo Yatra, he said that while the Congress believed in the idealogy of joining the people of the country together, the BJP believed in dividing them. “The nation accepted my call and people said that they would join hands in uniting the country,” he added. 

Calling Khammam a stronghold of the party he congratulated Bhatti Vikramarka for completing the padayatra and highlighting issues pertaining to the poor. “I commend Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy for joining the party and accepting our party's idealogy,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi said that a separate Telangana was the dream of the poor, farmers and the weaker sections. For nine years, the TRS destroyed their dream and changed its name to BRS, becoming ‘BJP Rishtedar Samiti’, Rahul said.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and MP A Revanth Reddy has said the party would end the BRS rule in the state by winning the majority seats in the coming elections.

Earlier, at the meeting, former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy formally joined the Congress. Rahul Gandhi offered him the party scarf and inducted him into the party. Several senior leaders from the Khammam district also joined the Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.

“Sonia knew that if she gave statehood to Telangana, the party will die in Andhra Pradesh, but still, she took a brave decision,” Srinivasa Reddy said. He said that he joined the Congress party to defeat the BRS in the ensuing elections adding that only Congress could fulfill the dreams of the people of the state.

Rahul Gandhi felicitated Congress State Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka whose 108-day and 1,360-km-long people’s march (padayatra) that began in Adilabad on March 16, 2023, culminated at Khammam on Sunday.

“The BRS government is snatching lands of the poor, the wealth of the state is dwindling and debt is raising, bring back Congress if you want equitable development,” the CLP leader said.

Balladeer Gaddar also met Rahul Gandhi on the stage. He hugged Rahul affectionately and gave pecks on his cheeks.