People ready to teach lesson to ‘reverse gear’ Congress: Harish Rao

HYDERABAD: Former Minister and Senior Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader T Harish Rao saw a silent revolution in Telangana in just five months after the Congress took over the reins from the BRS. Addressing a meet-the-press programme at the Basheerbagh Press Club here on Saturday, he said that people have realised that the Congress party in the State and the BJP at the national have cheated them.

Stressing the need to elect a maximum number of the BRS MPs in the Lok Sabha elections, Harish Rao said that only K Chandrashekar Rao could fight the nefarious plans of the national parties to extend common capital status to Hyderabad for another decade.

“In recent days the demand for extending the common capital status to Hyderabad has increased. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy with his roots deep into Andhra Pradesh because of his TDP background would not stop such a move. Only KCR has the guts to stop such a plan, but people must strengthen their hands by electing the BRS MPs,” Harish Rao pointed out.

The former Minister while answering a question on the BRS's stand on redistribution of wealth and abolition of reservations, said that the Indian Constitution would not allow any political outfit to alter the basic tenets of the Indian Constitution. “Both the national parties know that they can't tamper with the Constitution, but are using the sensational issues to confuse voters,” he said.

Forecasting a major role for regional parties after the results were announced on June 4, Harish Rao said that the BRS strongly believed that a leader from a regional party would become the Prime Minister. He said that Congress would not reach the magic mark but might be limited to 50 seats.

Declaring that the BRS would support a move to restrict party hopping by elected members, Harish Rao said that Danam Nagender’s case was exceptional as filed Form-B given by the Congress while still being an MLA elected on BRS ticket. “For your information, all the turncoats who have joined the Congress are in third position. They are going to lose. BRS will be winning a majority of the 17 seats. That is why the BJP and the Congress entered into a tacit understanding to field weak candidates in 8 seats each,” Harish observed.

When asked about his challenge to Revanth Reddy on the implementation of crop loan waiver and six guarantees by August 15, Harish Rao said that he would be submitting his resignation in Speaker’s format to the Press Club, if they could secure CM Revanth Reddy’s resignation also in a similar format.

“I am a loyal soldier of KCR and the BRS. I don’t want to lose my character by party hopping,” Harish said when he was asked whether he would do a ‘Gopinath Shinde’ with the BRS. He also added that minorities must vote for the BRS to strengthen the party while the BJP had its plan to replace the regional party after its debacle in Assembly elections. “It is the responsibility of minorities to save BRS. Wherever the Congress is in third place like Medak or Secunderabad for instance, strengthen BRS so that the communal BJP can be stopped from winning,” he said.

Reiterating that KCR would start attending the Assembly as he had recovered from his hip injury, Harish Rao said that KCR would have personally attended and completed the repairs to the Medigadda barrage if not restricted by the Model Code of Conduct. “He would have kept the Kaleshwaram project ready for pumping by July. The diaphragm wall of Polavaram washed away years ago, why the NDSA never submitted a report on it, why the Central Agency submitted a report on Kaleshwaram in just five days,” Harish pointed out.

Harish Rao said that the investors were terrified by the immature statements of the Chief Minister particularly on drinking water and power forcing them to look for other alternative States. “Revanth Reddy talks about the State’s finances in a bad light just to take revenge on KCR, but he has no idea how investors will perceive the State,” Haish said.

People had been observing Revanth Reddy’s foul language and his body language, Harish said. “With blind hatred and vengefulness, Revanth Reddy announced that he would scarp the districts created by KCR. What happened to Praja Darbar and Praja Palana? , Revanth Reddy attended the Praja Darbar for one day and his ministers attended it the next day. It was the first promise in their manifesto. Revanth just scraps existing schemes, without implementing the six guarantees and 420 promises,“ he observed.