Congress vows to devise new strategies to regain power in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Accusing Telangana police of working like private army of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and ‘stealing’ Congress’ data, TPCC vice-president Mallu Ravi on Thursday said that the grand old party will continue to devise new strategies to bring down the BRS from power.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan here, he lauded the efforts of media in protecting democracy when the ‘war room’ of Congress at party’s poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu’s office was raided by the State police.

“As the BRS was losing people’s backing, KCR used police to steal the documents containing the Congress’ plans to regain the support of Telangana people. Though the police took away computers and hard drives containing our strategies and future plans, Congress will continue to devise new strategies to bring down BRS from power,” he said.

Report to Kharge
Alleging that police were acting in a partisan manner and prejudiced against his party, he said: “When we lodged complaints on Congress leaders being maligned on social media, police refused to register cases. But when they found posts against BRS, they responded swiftly. The BJP has been posting many strong comments against the TRS leaders but police never responded to those posts.”

Mallu Ravi also said that a comprehensive report on the entire episode of police raiding the party’s war room will be sent to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, who he said, was a native of Gulbarga, which was part of the erstwhile Hyderabad State.

In view of the Supreme Court bench admitting a petition that had raised apprehensions that the State governments could be gathering voter information based on caste, language, religion, income and region in the process of linking Aadhaar card with voter IDs, the Congress party has submitted a representation to the Election Commission, requesting it to stop using the data gathered so far.

The party claims that though the Election Commission has stated that Aadhaar linking was only voluntary, it was exerting pressure on the State over the issue and so far, 57.37% of voters in Telangana have been linked with Aadhaar.

It also accuses the election commission of bringing changes in the voter registration forms with a malicious intention of linking voter card with Aadhaar, and that the Form 6, which was being used for registration of new voters, is being formulated to misguide the people.

“A new Form 6 should be prepared without mentioning the Aadhaar details. The specially designed Form 6B intended for the linkage of Aadhaar should be immediately discontinued,” G Niranjan, TPCC senior vice-president said during Thursday’s media conference.

KANUGOLU’S TEAM TO APPEAR BEFORE COPS ONLY AFTER RECEIVING FIR COPY
Congress leader Mallu Ravi on Thursday said that three team members of Congress election strategist Sunil Kanugolu, who were taken into custody and issued notices, will appear before police only after receiving a copy of the FIR registered against them.  “They will appear before police only after the party checks the contents of the FIR. We have  requested the police to allow them to appear  on December 19 and not December 17,” he added. It may be mentioned here that they were served notices by the Hyderabad police on Wednesday, asking them to appear before them for questioning on December 17.

HYDERABAD: Accusing Telangana police of working like private army of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and ‘stealing’ Congress’ data, TPCC vice-president Mallu Ravi on Thursday said that the grand old party will continue to devise new strategies to bring down the BRS from power. Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan here, he lauded the efforts of media in protecting democracy when the ‘war room’ of Congress at party’s poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu’s office was raided by the State police. “As the BRS was losing people’s backing, KCR used police to steal the documents containing the Congress’ plans to regain the support of Telangana people. Though the police took away computers and hard drives containing our strategies and future plans, Congress will continue to devise new strategies to bring down BRS from power,” he said. Report to Kharge Alleging that police were acting in a partisan manner and prejudiced against his party, he said: “When we lodged complaints on Congress leaders being maligned on social media, police refused to register cases. But when they found posts against BRS, they responded swiftly. The BJP has been posting many strong comments against the TRS leaders but police never responded to those posts.” Mallu Ravi also said that a comprehensive report on the entire episode of police raiding the party’s war room will be sent to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, who he said, was a native of Gulbarga, which was part of the erstwhile Hyderabad State. In view of the Supreme Court bench admitting a petition that had raised apprehensions that the State governments could be gathering voter information based on caste, language, religion, income and region in the process of linking Aadhaar card with voter IDs, the Congress party has submitted a representation to the Election Commission, requesting it to stop using the data gathered so far. The party claims that though the Election Commission has stated that Aadhaar linking was only voluntary, it was exerting pressure on the State over the issue and so far, 57.37% of voters in Telangana have been linked with Aadhaar. It also accuses the election commission of bringing changes in the voter registration forms with a malicious intention of linking voter card with Aadhaar, and that the Form 6, which was being used for registration of new voters, is being formulated to misguide the people. “A new Form 6 should be prepared without mentioning the Aadhaar details. The specially designed Form 6B intended for the linkage of Aadhaar should be immediately discontinued,” G Niranjan, TPCC senior vice-president said during Thursday’s media conference. KANUGOLU’S TEAM TO APPEAR BEFORE COPS ONLY AFTER RECEIVING FIR COPY Congress leader Mallu Ravi on Thursday said that three team members of Congress election strategist Sunil Kanugolu, who were taken into custody and issued notices, will appear before police only after receiving a copy of the FIR registered against them.  “They will appear before police only after the party checks the contents of the FIR. We have  requested the police to allow them to appear  on December 19 and not December 17,” he added. It may be mentioned here that they were served notices by the Hyderabad police on Wednesday, asking them to appear before them for questioning on December 17.