The ‘Jai Telangana’ slogan of the TRS has been changed to ‘Jai KCR’ and ‘Jai KTR’ neglecting the aspirations of the people that brought them under the umbrella of ‘Jai Telangana’ slogan, alleged the Chevella MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy.
At a press conference here, Mr. Reddy, who left the TRS and joined Congress two days ago, said it had become difficult for him to continue in the party at the cost of killing his self-respect. “All the MPs except two are continuing in TRS compromising on their self-respect, and some of them may come out soon,” he said.
Terming caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao the new ‘Nizam’, he said at least the Nizam believed in collective ruling though the final decision was his. But here it was an authoritarian rule and no one has any say in anything. Leaders like T. Harish Rao, Eatala Rajender and Nayini Narsimha Reddy were respected by the people, but not by the TRS leadership, he alleged. “I was planning to come out much earlier feeling uncomfortable with the authoritarian rule, but Mahabubnagar MP A.P. Jithender Reddy comforted me saying TRS was the sole property of Mr. KCR and asked me not to expect democracy in it. But I couldn’t take the humiliation long, given my political and educational background,” he said.
He claimed that the MPs were just a number for Mr. KCR and he was asked to stay away from the Parliament sessions for three days just because he had 100% attendance. “We were fooled on the triple Talaq issue and were asked to leave the voting process. We slipped out of the Parliament one by one and other MPs were laughing at our condition,” he claimed.
We were fooled by the State government on Kaleshwaram project too, he claimed, stating that while fighting for national status for it in the Parliament, the Union Minister said the Telangana government did not even apply for it.
Giving credit to Mr. KCR on electricity, Mr. Reddy said one should question at what cost did it happen? “As an electrical engineer, I can tell you there is abundant of power available in the market and one needs to spend money to get it,” he said.
Huge debt
Mr. Reddy said the financial condition in Telangana was precarious with ₹61,000 debt on every head and ₹3 lakh debt on every household. “People might be getting a few thousand rupees under various welfare schemes, but they should understand that debt of lakhs of rupees has been forced upon them,” he said.
Mr. Reddy alleged that KTR was blindly supporting Tandur MLA P. Mahender Reddy, who believes in goondaism and occupation of lands.