Deccan Chronicle

KCR: Defections to TRS justified

‘Congress acted against our interests’

- L. VENKAT RAM REDDY | DC HYDERABAD, MARCH 14:

Chief Minister K. Chandrasek­har Rao justified defections from other parties to the TRS in the Assembly on Wednesday, saying that the party invited leaders from other parties in order to achieve “political stability” and save Telangana State from collapse.

Soon after the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) formed the government with a simple majority in June 2014, he said he received intelligen­ce reports of some parties conspiring against the TRS government both in Delhi and Hyderabad, to topple it within days of its formation. “To prevent this, we asked leaders of other parties to join the TRS.”

Following this, the legislatur­e parties of the Telugu Desam, the YSR Congress Party, the BSP, and CPI took a decision to merge into the TRS and the merger process was done legally with three-fourth of MLAs of those parties supporting it, Mr Rao said.

He said some “anti-Telangana forces” were hell bent on proving to the world that Telagnana State was a “failed experiment” by creating political instabilit­y and toppling the government.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasek­har Rao termed the Congress as ‘villain No.1 of Telangana’ since the regime of Jawaharlal Nehru.

He said Telangana’s plight was because of the Congress, which had started acting against State interests since 1950s. He accused it of changing the site of Nagarjunas­agar project from Telangana to Andhra and reducing its storage capacity as also that of Sriramsaga­r.

The CM delved into history and said Nehru merged Telangana with Andhra against the wishes of people of the former in 1956. His daughter Indira Gandhi amended the Constituti­on in the 60s to block Supreme Court orders on mulki rules which ensured jobs to Telangana locals. Telangana Congress leaders since the Nehru era compromise­d on the State interests for posts or favours. “With this, Telangana got raw deal on all fronts,” Mr Rao said, adding that it was to fight this that TRS was launched at Jala Drushyam in the city in April 2001.

He accused State Congress leaders like Mr K. Jana Reddy and Mr G. Chinna Reddy of trying to launch Telangana statehood movement whenever they were denied ministeria­l posts and ended their demands once they got favours.

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