Rahul Gandhi is BJP's biggest strength, quips KTR

HYDERABAD: BRS Working President K T Rama Rao launched a scathing attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, calling him the "biggest strength" of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He asserted that as long as Rahul Gandhi led the Congress, the BJP would continue to grow in power. "Rahul Gandhi lacked the maturity, strength, or will to defeat the BJP," he said.

KTR made these comments during an interaction with a group of Urdu journalists at his residence in Nandi Nagar, Banjara Hills on Tuesday. He argued that Congress's weak leadership was primarily responsible for the BJP's rise across the country. According to him, the BJP had managed to gain strength nationally due to Congress's inability to offer a strong alternative.

He claimed that the BRS was the only party in Telangana capable of stopping the BJP. If the BRS won 10 to 12 Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming elections, it would use its influence in Parliament to oppose any attempt to make Hyderabad a Union Territory or take any other action that could harm Telangana's interests.

KTR alleged that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was closely aligned with the BJP and likely to join them after the elections due to his involvement in the "vote-for-note" case. He said Revanth Reddy's political future depended on his alliance with the BJP.

He asserted that the BRS was the only party with the strength to effectively challenge the BJP. Congress, on the other hand, had consistently failed to compete with the BJP, as evidenced by its performance in recent elections. KTR claimed that the BRS had beaten the BJP in every election held in Telangana since the state's formation. In the most recent assembly elections, despite Congress fielding weak candidates who seemed intended to favor the BJP, the BRS still managed to defeat key BJP leaders.

KTR pointed out specific instances where the BRS triumphed over prominent BJP figures, including Bandi Sanjay in Karimnagar, Dharamapuri Arvind in Kortala, Eatala Rajender in Huzurabad, and Raghunandan Rao in Dubak. He also criticised Congress for fielding a weak candidate against Raja Singh in Gosha Mahal, suggesting that the Congress party's approach enabled the BJP's success.

He said that in all the states where the BJP had toppled governments, those governments were led by Congress. While the BJP had made efforts to undermine regional parties, it hadn't been able to eliminate them completely. He said that the BJP was using central agencies like the CBI and ED to target leaders from regional parties, pointing to the arrests of BRS's Kavitha, Aam Aadmi Party Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and former Chief Minister Hemant Soren. He mentioned that cases had also been registered against Tamil Nadu CM Stalin and the daughter of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

According to KTR, the BJP's focus had been on regional party leaders, who faced legal action and even jail time, while no senior Congress leader had faced similar consequences. Although there were cases against Congress's Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, they had not been imprisoned. He said that the BJP was disproportionately targeting regional party leaders while avoiding direct action against Congress's leadership. This, he claimed, revealed the BJP's strategy of suppressing regional opposition.

KTR stated that the emergence of a third front comprising regional parties not aligned with Congress or BJP at the national level couldn't be dismissed. He emphasised that the BRS could play a central role in such a scenario. If parties not part of the BJP-led NDA or the Congress-led INDIA alliance secured between 100 and 120 seats in the Lok Sabha, Congress and its allies might have to support a third front to form a government. He suggested that the current political climate and polling trends indicated a real possibility of a third front gaining traction. This new coalition could reshape the political landscape at the national level, with regional parties playing a more significant role in determining the country's future leadership.

KTR reiterated that the BRS was a secular party committed to equitable development for all segments of Telangana's population. During the BRS's tenure, he said, the state spent 12,780 crore rupees on the welfare of Muslim minorities - a figure he claimed surpassed the minority welfare budgets of any other state in India. He contrasted this with states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, which have large Muslim populations but allocated only a few hundred crores of rupees for minority welfare. In Telangana, the BRS had allocated Rs 2,000 crore rupees for 50 lakh Muslims in the state, a number that could have reached 5,000 crores over five years if the BRS remained in power. KTR suggested that such a significant commitment to minority welfare demonstrated the party's dedication to secularism and inclusive governance.

He criticised the BJP for its focus on Ram Mandir and for using religious issues to garner votes. Despite having constructed a grand temple in Yadirigutta during the BRS regime, KTR asserted that his party never used religious symbols or temple construction for political gain. This, he explained, distinguished the BRS's approach from that of the BJP, highlighting the BRS's commitment to maintaining secular principles in its political strategy.

He completely dismissed the possibility of BRS ever forming an alliance with the BJP in the future. "BJP Govt has imprisoned my sister (Kavitha) in a false case. She is in prison for the last 50 days. This caused immense pain to my mother. Do you think I will ally with a party which illegally imprisoned my sister?" he asked.