HYDERABAD: Two months after he laid foundation stones for 13 lift irrigation (LI) schemes at Nellikallu and addressed a public meeting in Nalgonda’s Halia town, TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday set the tempo for party candidate Nomula Bhagat’s victory in the Nagarjuna Sagar bypoll by declaring that he would not seek votes in the next elections if his government fails to complete Nellikallu, Tirumagiri Sagar and other LI schemes within one-and-a-half years.
The CM also assured the voters of getting Godavari water from Paleru to Sagar ayacut and filling Peddadevulapally Cheruvu. In his nearly 40-minute speech at a public meeting in Halia, KCR mainly targeted Congress candidate and former minister K Jana Reddy, but avoided mentioning the BJP. He asked the people not to carried away by the smear campaign of some parties against the TRS.
“Some Congress leaders are claiming that chief ministership is Jana Reddy’s ‘biksham’ (alms) to KCR. Jana Reddy did not give me CM’s post. People gave the alms to KCR by giving majority seats to the TRS,” he said.
Alleging that Telangana Congress leaders had surrendered to Andhra rulers when the state was united, he said: “Congress leaders gave up Telangana’s interests to protect their posts and power. But, we gave up our posts in the interests of Telangana. That is the difference between the TRS and Congress.” When he launched Telangana statehood movement, he quit his assembly deputy speaker and MLA posts and told people to stone him to death if he gave up the movement in the middle, KCR recalled.
Urging the people to think wisely who had done what in the past six years, KCR said it was the TRS which had developed the Sagar constituency.
The TRS president said some parties had even tried to stop Wednesday’s public meeting by approaching the high court and even the Election Commission of India. ”Generally, political parties hold meetings during the elections and tell people what they have done and what they would do for them. It is a democratic right. In the ongoing elections in four states and Puducherry, Prime Minister Modi and other parties conducted several meetings,” he said.