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A day after Rahul Gandhi addressed a public meeting in Telangana’s Khammam, the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) slammed the Congress on Monday, describing the party as a “brand ambassador for corruption” and the leader “an immature politician”.
On Sunday, Gandhi made a scathing attack on the chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao-led government in the state.
However, a host of BRS leaders, from ministers to MPs, lashed out at the former Congress president for reading “a script prepared by local Congress leaders levelling baseless allegations against the state government”.
BRS working president and state industries minister K T Rama Rao said the All- India Congress Committee (AICC) had turned out to be “All India Corruption Committee,” as the people were yet to forget a series of scams that had taken place during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government between 2004 and 2014.
Reacting to Gandhi’s allegation that the BRS has become “BJP Rishtedar Samithi” (a relative of BJP), KTR said the BRS had never been the B-team of BJP or the C-team of Congress. “We are a formidable political force, and we can take on both the parties single-handedly,” he said.
On the allegation of Gandhi about massive corruption in the Kaleshwaram Lift irrigation Scheme, the minister said the Congress would only become a laughing stock with such baseless allegations.
He also questioned the credibility of Gandhi’s promise of increasing the old-age pension to ₹4,000 per month. He reminded that the party failed to fulfil its promise of supplying free rice to the poor under the “Annabhagya” scheme in Karnataka.
State finance minister T Harish Rao said the Congress had earned the reputation of being a “Scamgress” because of massive corruption during its regime. “It has no moral right to make allegations of corruption in Telangana,” he said.
The minister ridiculed Gandhi’s promises to distribute podu lands to the tribals when the BRS government had already completed the land distribution among the tribals. “It shows his lack of awareness about the developments in the state. He was only reading out the script given by the local leaders and enacting a skit,” he said, adding that Gandhi proved to be “an outdated politician”.
BRS parliamentary party leader K Kesava Rao also found fault with Gandhi for making objectionable comments against the BRS. “He said the BRS had supported the controversial bill on agricultural laws. The BRS MPs opposed them and walked out of the House. It was because of our strong resistance that the Modi government backtracked on the same,” he said.
He said Gandhi had no competence to lead the opposition parties to fight against the BJP. “Only the BRS has been in the forefront to oppose the BJP,” Rao added.
Meanwhile, responding to the outburst from the BRS leaders against Gandhi, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy said the ruling party was scared of the Congress and hence tried to create hurdles for the Khammam rally.
He said Gandhi had all the right to seek the support of the people of Telangana, as it was the Congress which granted statehood to the region in 2014.
“He has united all sections of people with his Bharat Jodo Yatra. What is the locus standi of the BRS leaders to question his credibility?” he asked.
The PCC president said it was Congress, which had taken up several irrigation projects, infrastructure projects and schemes for the poor. “The irrigation projects which the BRS is talking about were initiated by the Congress,” he pointed out.
Srinivasa Rao is Senior Assistant Editor based out of Hyderabad covering developments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana . He has over three decades of reporting experience.