“Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) quest for electoral victory in Telangana is nothing but chasing a mirage,” said Minister for Finance T Harish Rao, while speaking at Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ‘Atmeeya Sammelanam’ at Kalluru under Sattupalli constituency in Khammam district on Monday.
The Minister poked fun at the public meeting addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah by saying that the crowd at the meeting was thin. “The crowd at Amit Shah’s meeting was not half the size of the crowd present at the ‘Atmeeya Sammelanam’ (get-together) in Kallur,” he pointed out.
Elaborating on it, Harish Rao said that the BJP leaders had mobilised people from four districts for Amit Shah’s meeting. “The BJP leaders, including the Union Home Minister, have been labouring under the illusion that their party would come to power in the State. BJP’s electoral victory is a distant mirage,” he asserted. He wondered whether the saffron party could even get a security deposit. He said that the truth would prevail.
Amit Shah was speaking out of frustration because the BJP would bite the dust in Karnataka. The BJP, he said, was creating a rift between people based on caste and religion. Harish Rao flayed Amit Shaha for failing to promise that Rs 1,350 crore funds which were withheld by the Centre would be released. He did talk about the Bayyaram steel plant nor did he suggest any solution to seven mandals which were merged with Andhra Pradesh. The Union Home Minister was accompanied by a “leader who was involved in the question paper leak case.”
The Minister appealed to the farmers not to get disheartened because unseasonal rains wreaked havoc. The government would come to the rescue of farmers, he said. He recalled that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar had ensured that Rs 10 lakh compensation was paid per acre when unseasonal rains damaged crops recently.
Minister for Transport Puvvada Ajay Kumar, Lok Sabha member Nama Nageswara Rao, former minister Tummala Nageswara Rao and BRS leaders Parthasarathi Reddy and Ravi Chandra and Telangana State Medical and Infrastructure Corporation Chairman A Srinivas and local MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah were present.
