Harish Rao terms BRS defeat in Assembly polls a “speed breaker”

Former Minister T Harish Rao termed the electoral defeat of the BRS in the recent Assembly polls a mere “speed breaker” and said the party would bounce back to fight for the people of the State. With former Chief Minister and BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao expected to resume active politics next month, he said all top leaders would be available for party activists at Telangana Bhavan regularly.

Addressing the Mahabubabad Parliamentary constituency preparatory meeting for Lok Sabha elections at Telangana Bhavan on Thursday, Harish Rao slammed the Congress for continuing its misinformation campaign against the BRS, rather than focusing on administration and governance. He criticised the Congress for its false campaign and misinformation on issues like crop loan waivers and electricity policies.

“The Congress promised to waive off loans upto Rs 2 lakh by December 9, issue DSC notification after first Cabinet meeting, but denied to have promised unemployment allowance, and failed on delivering many other promises. Now, there is no clarity whether farmers will get adequate water and power supply. The Congress government is just delaying on its promises, giving excuses and blaming the previous BRS government,” he said.

The former Minister urged party members to work unitedly for the upcoming Lok Sabha



elections. He emphasized unity, promising necessary support to the party activists against whom the State government is filing cases under false pretext which will be fought in the courts. To support the party activists, he assured to establish legal cells in all the party district offices.

Later, speaking to the mediapersons after the meeting, former Ministers S Niranjan Reddy and Satyavathi Rathod demanded that the Congress government provide bonus to paddy farmers as was promised during the elections. He said the Congress gave several impractical promises during the election campaign and was now giving one excuse or the other to evade their implementation. He wanted the State government to release arrears of Rs.1,000 crore pertaining to paddy procurement from farmers immediately.

“Even the Ministers are making contradictory statements regarding the Rythu Bharosa financial assistance, causing more confusion and distress among farmers. While Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka declared that Rythu Bandhu was disbursed to all farmers, Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao is stating that the financial assistance will be extended to farmers after Sankranti festivities,” he said. He warned that if the Congress leaders were planning to delay implementation of their promises citing Model Code of Conduct, they would not be spared.