Will personally invite Ponnala Lakshmaiah to join BRS: KTR

HYDERABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao has said that he will personally go to former Telangana Pradesh Congress Commitee president Ponnala Lakshmaiah and invite him to join the party.

Senior Congress leader Ponnala Lakshmaiah, who served as a Minister in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, quit the grand old party on Friday over alleged injustice meted out to the Backward Classes (BC) community and alleged irregularities in the selection of candidates.

Speaking about the campaign trail of the BRS, KTR said, "Our 114 candidates, declared by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) have feverishly hit the campaign road. We will announce the names of the remaining five candidates soon."

Expressing his views on the claims by the Congress that the party would win about 70 seats in the upcoming elections, KTR said, "Congress has no candidates in 40 seats. How can they say that they will win in 70 seats? When you include the undivided Rangareddy district, there are 29 seats and they don't even have candidates in about 25 seats. The Congress is giving tickets only to those who are offering money. Recently Congress leaders met a leader who demanded Rs 15 crore for the Kukatpally seat."

Saying that the BRS is seeking votes based on their work, KTR said, "We are fighting elections by talking about the work we have done for the last nine-and-a-half years. We are explaining our progress report to the people. Is there a better model of Governance than ours in any of the Congress or the BJP ruled states? Telangana is number one in all the indices of NITI Aayog and RBI reports."

Talking about the BJP's prospects for the upcoming elections, KTR said, "BJP's high command themselves don't take the State BJP leadership seriously. The party is sure to lose deposits in 110 seats this time too. It will be limited to single digits again."

About the Congress' chances in the elections, he said, "Rahul Gandhi is not a leader but a reader who will only read the script given to him. This election is going to be a contest between the pride of Telangana and the arrogance of leaders from Delhi and Gujarat."

Giving an update about the BRS agenda in thr weeks during elections, KTR said, "CM KCR is going to campaign in 100 seats this time too. I will take care of campaigns in Kamareddy and Sircilla districts along with constituencies in Greater Hyderabad limits.

"In the manifesto we will lay major emphasis on the interests of farmers, women, Dalits, tribals, weaker sections, minorities and pensioners. BRS will be the backbone for lower classes. We are confident of winning 88 seats like last time," he concluded.