TS not richest state, says Jaipal

Stating that the widespread anger among the people against the ruling TRS was evident during AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s public meeting at Sangareddy, senior Congress leader and former Union minister S. Jaipal Reddy said that the people know how and when to express their anger appropriately.

Speaking at a Meet the Press programme organised by Hyderabad Press Club here on Saturday, the senior Congress leader said that while there were many reasons for the people to be angry at the TRS government, one of them was the autocratic style of functioning of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

He said that Mr Gandhi was the automatic choice as the Congress’ Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2019 elections.

Rejecting the oft-repeated argument of the Chief Minister that Telangana was the richest state in the country, Mr Reddy said, “A revenue surplus state cannot be termed “richest state”. Unless there is tremendous increase in stateowned resources and assets, one cannot call it as the richest state.”

He found fault with Chief Minister’s statement on staging dharna at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to exert pressure on the Centre to approve 12 per cent reservations for backward Muslims. “On one hand, KCR is denying democratic protests in the state capital; he even closed the Dharna Chowk at Indira Park permanently, on the other hand, he wants to stage a dharna at Jantar Mantar in the interest of state. Is he not contradicting himself ?” Mr Reddy said.

Finding fault with CM’s proposal to shift the Secretariat to the Bison Polo Grounds, he said: “Over 50 per cent buildings in the existing Secretariat are vacant.”