Chappal treatment should be for Congress leaders, not farmers, says KTR

KT Rama Rao warned Congress leaders of a severe backlash from the public if they failed to implement the promises within 100 days

Karimnagar: In a strong-worded response to Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy’s reported statement that farmers who complained of not getting Rythu Bandhu assistance should be slapped with chappals, BRS working president KT Rama Rao said it should be the other way around, with farmers giving the chappal treatment to Congress leaders for failing to deposit Rythu Bandhu amounts in their accounts.

Speaking at a BRS Social Media Warriors awareness programme in Karimnagar parliament constituency on Wednesday, Rama Rao said farmers should also think whether they would hit back at the Congress leaders with their chappals or with their votes.

He also pointed out that though farmers across the State were in a crisis with many of them not receiving Rythu Bandhu assistance so far, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had falsely claimed in Davos that he had already started implementation of the Rythu Bharosa scheme in Telangana.

This was in comparison with the governance of K Chandrashekhar Rao, when the Rythu Bandhu amount was deposited in accounts of 70 lakh farmers without fail.

Stating that though the Congress talked about only six guarantees, fact was that the party had made 420 promises to various sections of the public before the elections, Rama Rao warned Congress leaders of a severe backlash from the public if they failed to implement the promises within 100 days.

Before coming to power, Revanth Reddy had advised the farmers to take loans of Rs.2 lakh and not pay since he would waive farm loans up to Rs.2 lakh after coming to power. He had also promised to provide a bonus of Rs.500 per quintal of paddy to farmers but both the promises were not kept yet. Same was the status of the promise of free power upto 200 units and that of an unemployment allowance of Rs.4,000.

Ridiculing comments of Congress leaders on the BRS being a B team of the BJP, Rama Rao asked which party had then Dharmapuri Arvind, Etala Rajender, Raghunandhan Rao and Soyam Bapu Rao. Why would the BRS defeat BJP candidates if it was a B team, he asked, also pointing out that the Congress had diverted its votes to BJP candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well as in the Huzurabad by-election.

At the same time, even as AICC leader Rahul Gandhi was talking about a secret understanding between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and businessman Gautam Adani, Congress Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was signing deals with Adani in Davos. Former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had refused Adani entry into the State with his business offers, while Revanth Reddy was now conspiring to hand over all government institutions here to Adani, he said.

The separate notifications for the MLC elections, which came soon after Revanth Reddy met Modi, too pointed towards a Congress-BJP nexus. Stating that Revanth Reddy’s political roots were in the ABVP, Rama Rao said Revanth Reddy would prove to be Telangana’s Eknath Shinde after the Parliament polls.

Muslims, Sikhs and other minorities should be aware of the Congress-BJP collusion, since if they voted for the Congress, their votes would go to the BJP, he said, adding that the BJP was utilizing religion for political gains.