Attacking the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for not sanctioning approval to establish any educational institutions such as medical colleges and Navodaya Vidyalayas in Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday asked people not to vote for the BJP in the assembly elections.
Addressing a public meeting after filing his nomination from Kamareddy constituency for the November 30 assembly polls, Rao, president of BRS, claimed that the NDA government insisted on installing meters on agricultural pump sets — to enable billing, which would have put a burden on farmers — and he refused to do so.
The Centre also effected a cut of Rs 25,000 crore (at Rs 5,000 crore per year) in dues to Telangana for not complying with its directive, he alleged.
“Then, how can the BJP man ask for votes in Kamareddy?” Rao, also known as KCR, asked.
“There is a law passed in Parliament that Navodaya Vidyalayas should be established in every district. We have 33 districts. They were formed ages ago. So, the Navodaya Vidyalayas should have been given to us. I had written 100 letters to Narendra Modi (in this regard),” he said.
BRS MPs K Keshav Rao and B B Patil also raised the issue in Parliament but the Centre did not sanction any Navodaya Vidyalaya, he said.
“Why should we cast even one vote for the BJP which did not give us even a single Navodaya school?,” he asked.
Though the Narendra Modi government at Centre set up 157 medical colleges in the country, it did not sanction even one for Telangana, he said. “Please don’t give even one vote (to BJP),” he urged voters.
Making a reference to the Congress fielding its state unit president A Revanth Reddy against him in Kamareddy, he spoke about how the then Congress-led UPA government in 2009 announced the formation of Telangana following his (KCR’s) indefinite fast and a forceful agitation but went back on its word.
Later, it delivered on the statehood demand under compulsions in the wake of an agitation again by all sections of society, he said.
Following the formation of Telangana, the Congress attempted to trigger political instability by “purchasing BRS MLAs”, he further alleged.
“The person who came to purchase and was caught with Rs 50 lakh money (cash-for-vote case in 2015), the same great man is now said to be contesting against me in Kamareddy,” he said.
Revanth Reddy was an accused in the 2015 cash-for-vote case. People must teach him a lesson, KCR said. Rao reiterated his allegations that Congress leaders would cut down the 24-hour power supply being provided by his government to the farm sector to only three hours a day.
Rao, who recalled his personal association with Kamareddy, said the MLA from the constituency in the outgoing Assembly, Gampa Govardhan, and other leaders had urged him to contest from there.
He promised that a water supply facility would be provided to Kamareddy and Yellareddy constituencies by completing the pending Kaleswaram project works expeditiously and vowed to make Kamareddy a “piece of gold” in terms of development and progress.