BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Sunday opined that the result of the recent Assembly polls would have been different if some sitting MLAs were not repeated in some constituencies. He declared that the party would not commit the same mistake in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, hinting at a change of candidates in the Lok Sabha polls, if necessary.
He also felt that another factor for the BRS defeat was that people who did not receive the benefits of the ‘Bandhu’ schemes had voted against the party. “Even though all the beneficiaries of the Dalit Bandhu scheme in Nizam Sagar mandal received the full benefit, people from other communities who did not receive similar benefit, voted against us,” he said.
Participating in the Lok Sabha election preparatory meeting on Zaheerabad constituency held at Telangana Bhavan here, Rama Rao expressed confidence that the BRS would emerge victorious in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Zaheerabad constituency. He stated that there would be a three-way contest in the Parliamentary elections in Telangana and that the conditions were ‘favourable’ for the BRS to win a large number of seats.
He acknowledged the surprise defeat of Hanumanth Shinde in Jukkal by a meagre 1,100 votes and mentioned that
non-local candidates winning in constituencies was rare.
The former Minister said the Congress party which came to power recently, had already garnered enough ‘disrepute’ within a month. He pointed out that even people who voted for the Congress are now unhappy that BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao did not become the Chief Minister again, indicating that their admiration for him remained strong.
“People understood that only the BRS and its president Chandrashekhar Rao will fight for Telangana and its people,” he said.
Rama Rao urged the BRS members to capitalise on the Congress’s 420 promises and amplify pressure on the government. He criticised the proposals to reduce the number of districts, questioning public acceptance of such changes.
“Congress MLAs are already facing heat from the public. The government is trying to escape from delivering on its poll promises by claiming that the State is in debt,” he added.
The BRS working president also declared that the BRS had no plans to criticise the newly elected Congress government. However, with the Congress trying to discredit the BRS and its development of Telangana, the BRS was left with no option but to launch a counterattack, he said.