Guv speaking for TRS, says Oppn

The Opposition on Saturday said Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan’s address to the joint sitting of the legislature was like reading out the TRS manifesto.

The Congress said there was nothing new in the speech. CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said, “The Governor spoke about the promises made in the past. It would have been nice if the Governor’s speech contained the truth about unemployment. There was nothing about pensions and unemployment allowances.”

Congress MLC Shabbir Ali said it was a “copy paste” of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s campaign speech. “The Governor should have stated when the government would waive farm loans, enhance pensions and give 2BHK houses. There is no clarity on unemployment allowance and providing jobs. Regarding Muslim reservations, the Governor termed them as minorities, he should be more clear.”

On the power front, the party accused the Governor of “lying”. Congress MLA D. Sridhar Babu said the Governor had blamed the previous governments for “mistakes”. “The credit for surplus electricity should be given to the Congress. The policies taken by the Congress resulted in producing more electricity,” he said.

Congress MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said the speech was “not completely true” and asked when the government would enhance pensions.

BJP MLA Raja Singh, who took oath earlier in the day, repeated the claim that Mr Narasimhan had read out the TRS election manifesto.