Revanth Reddy deceiving both people and Congress leadership: Harish Rao

Harish Rao challenged Revanth Reddy to refrain from seeking votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections unless he fulfills his electoral promises within the stipulated 100-day period

Hyderabad: Former Minister T Harish Rao launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, accusing him of not only deceiving the people of Telangana but also betraying his own party leadership. He challenged Revanth Reddy to refrain from seeking votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections unless he fulfills his electoral promises within the stipulated 100-day period.

In an informal interaction with mediapersons at Telangana Bhavan on Wednesday, Harish Rao asserted that Revanth Reddy had not only deceived the people but also misled the Congress party. He pointed out the contradictory statements made by Revanth Reddy, praising the Gujarat model while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi labeled it a failure. He questioned Revanth Reddy’s intentions behind seeking cooperation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in future, and accused him of prioritizing Modi’s blessings over those of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

The former minister said the Chief Minister’s actions implied that the Congress would not come to power at the Centre and hence he sought Modi’s blessings. He pointed out that the BJP leaders like Muralidhar Rao and Madhavi Latha, were praising Revanth Reddy, while the Karnataka BJP leaders were advising their Chief Minister Siddharamaiah to learn from his Telangana counterpart.

Harish Rao challenged Revanth Reddy’s claims, including promises of loan waivers, bonus for paddy crops, 24-hour electricity, and Rythu Bandhu, stating that the Congress had failed to deliver on these commitments. He pointed out that though the Congress promised crop loan waiver, funds were not allocated in the State budget for the current fiscal.

The former minister also called for accountability, stating that cases should be filed against Congress leaders for distributing bond papers on the six guarantees during the Assembly election campaign and questioned why women had not received Rs 2,500 as promised.

Harish Rao accused the Chief Minister of taking false credit for appointments to about 30,000 government jobs for which the recruitment process was completed under the BRS regime. He slammed the latter for claiming that 21,000 teacher posts were vacant during elections, but issuing notification for only 11,000 posts. He also questioned the State government over delay in release of job calendar.

Responding to a question, he stated that if the Congress government is sincere, it could immediately start construction of Tummidihatti project as the previous Congress government in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh had already reached an agreement with the then Maharashtra government in this regard.

The former minister also slammed Revanth Reddy for his remarks against former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao over his absence in the Assembly, despite being aware of the latter’s health condition. He questioned the appropriateness of such statements without any regard for the man who had achieved Telangana State.