TRS targets grand alliance, warns voters to be wary of ‘Andhra rulers’

We...liberated it [Telangana] from Andhra rulers...should we hand over our precious Telangana back to the Andhra party

K CHANDRASEKHAR RAO, TRS chief & caretaker CM

HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on Tuesday cautioned people to be wary of Andhra rulers, who are seeking to gain control over Telangana once again.

“We have achieved separate statehood for Telangana and liberated it from Andhra rulers after a prolonged fight for over a decade. Should we hand over our precious Telangana back to the Andhra party?” KCR asked, referring to Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is part of Maha Kootami (grand alliance) which is contesting the upcoming assembly elections on December 7.

KCR was addressing a public meeting at Kosgi town in Kodangal assembly constituency, which was tense on Tuesday morning following the arrest of Telangana Congress working president A Revanth Reddy.

Reddy, who is contesting from this constituency, was taken into preventive custody on the direc- tion of the Election Commission, as he had earlier threatened to stall KCR’S meeting.

KCR said Mahabubnagar was still reeling from a drought-like situation because of local Congress and TDP leaders, who never bothered to develop the rocky terrain when they were in power in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

“After the TRS came to power, we have taken up PalamuruRanga Reddy lift irrigation scheme to provide irrigation to parched lands. While the Congress leaders filed cases in courts to stall the projects, Naidu wrote letters to the Centre demanding that it should not give permission to the projects. Shamelessly, the Congress party has allied with Naidu, who is trying to gain con- trol over Telangana again,” he said, vowing to provide irrigation to 20 lakh acres in Mahabubnagar. KCR claimed that it was the TRS government which had provided self-rule to adivasis... by giving them gram panchayat status.

“In Kodangal alone, 41 tribal hamlets have become gram panchayats,” he said.

KCR addressed election rallies at Alampur, Gadwal and Makthal. He asked the people to compare his four-and-a-half-year rule with the four decades-old regimes of the Congress and the TDP. “The state, which was facing severe power cuts during their rule, is now power surplus and we are able to give round-theclock power... If the grand alliance is voted to power, every household has to purchase a generator or inverter again.”

Naidu refuted the allegations that he would control the government in Telangana, if the Maha Kootami comes to power. “He [KCR] is trying to provoke people for his selfish political gains. It will be Congress CM..., if the alliance comes to power. I will be nowhere,” he said, addressing a rally in Khairatabad on Monday.