Union minister G. Kishan Reddy on Monday laid into Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his criticism of the party during the Telangana Jana Garjana in Khammam, claiming that he was neither able to run his own party nor able to retain MLAs who won on its flag.
He said: "The Congress leadership is so weak and helpless that it could not even keep within its fold MLAs who won on its flag in Telangana."
Kishan Reddy, speaking with reporters in New Delhi, said the Congress and the BRS were hand in glove, with a secret understanding, and declared that the BJP will never have a truck with the BRS. "The BRS and Congress, unable to digest the BJP’s growth, are working together to undermine the BJP," he said.
The BJP, he said, "is not a B-Team for anyone, and the people of the state fully well know how the Central government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, has stood by Telangana. Those who claim that the BJP is finished in Telangana will realise that the truth is otherwise, four months from now."
"The Congress is an
expert at announcing schemes and turning them into scams. And who does not know how it joined BRS in Parliament to disrupt proceedings? Did the world not see Rahul Gandhi and BRS leader K. Keshava Rao sit together and discuss issues? No one has forgotten how the Congress-propped candidate for the President was given a royal reception in Hyderabad by the BRS government. Is this not enough to show who is the B-team of which party," Kishan Reddy asked.
Recalling former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s observation that ‘Congress in Opposition is more dangerous than when in power’, Kishan Reddy said, "When in power, Congress leaders loot the nation and, when out of it, they divide society, undermine national unity, and create rifts between sections of society for political gains."
"The Congress is a party that makes impossible promises just to come to power," he said, referring to the Rs 4,000 pension promised in Telangana, and likening it to the BRS. "These two parties are two sides of the same coin," he said.