Addressing a public meet at Khammam in Telangana, Rahul Gandhi said the remote control of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was in the hands of PM Narendra Modi. (News18)
The BRS’ ‘Ekla Cholo Re’ attitude has left other parties baffled. After it stopped targeting the BJP in speeches and trained its guns on the Congress instead, BRS is being called the B-team of the saffron party
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi made it clear on Sunday that his party will not be part of any opposition front that includes the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
Addressing a public meet at Khammam in Telangana, Gandhi said the remote control of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was in the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BRS had become the B-team of the BJP, calling it “BJP-Rishtedar Samithi”.
In a major poll promise, Gandhi said if voted to power, the party will provide a monthly pension of Rs 4,000 to every elderly person and widow. Currently, under the BRS government, these two vulnerable sections receive Rs 1,000 pension as part of the Aasara scheme.
During the ‘Telangana Jana Garjana Sabha’, the Congress leader also said the doors are open for defectors to re-join the Congress. He added that the rampant corruption in the BRS is making it play second fiddle to the saffron party.
Earlier, in a public meeting in Maharashtra, KCR had emphatically denied that it was the ‘A’ or ‘B’ team of any party. He had said that his party was solely for the team of the marginalised in society.
The party’s ‘Ekla Cholo Re’ attitude has left others baffled. After the BRS stopped targeting the BJP in speeches and trained its guns on the Congress instead, it is being called the B-team of the BJP. The fact that MLC K Kavitha, KCR’s daughter, is no longer being summoned by the ED in the Delhi liquor policy scam has added fuel to this speculation. Also, Congress is the main opposition party in Telangana and that has made KCR maintain a distance from it. The party had earlier stated that it would not be part of any Opposition bloc that has either BJP or the Congress.
During the public meet in Khammam, Gandhi said: “Telangana was a dream; a dream of the poor, of the farmers, dream of the labourers, dream of the farmers and in the last nine years, the TRS only crushed this dream. The land that Indira Gandhi and Congress party had granted to the Dalits, the tribal people and the poor is being taken away by the BRS. Let me assure you, as you had asked this question during Bharat Jodo Yatra also, this land does not belong to the chief minister, it is yours, it is your right and the Congress party will hand over that land to you. Right now, KCR is treating Telangana as his personal fiefdom.”
In his earlier visits, Gandhi had promised sops for farmers. In May last year, as part of the Warangal Declaration, he had promised that the party would waive off Rs 2 lakh from each farmer’s loan and buy paddy at MSP. He had also said Congress would initiate direct benefit to farmers of Rs 15,000 per acre of farming land. The party has kept up a sustained fight to rectify the errors of the Dharani portal, which they allege is a “land-grabbing tool”.
