Hyderabad:
Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Tuesday mounted a blistering attack on the BJP and former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, challenging the BJP to seek votes on its governance record instead of the Prime Minister’s image and dismissing the party’s claim that it would capture power in the state in 2028.
Responding to BJP national president Nitin Nabin’s statement that the BJP would form the next government in Telangana, Reddy ridiculed the party’s ambitions and warned that Telangana would not follow the BJP’s political script.
“Recently, someone came here… Nabin or whatever his name is. He says the next government will be theirs. They made the same claims in West Bengal. It took them 15 years there. Telangana will give them the same answer. Our people know how to respond,” the chief minister said at a public meeting in Hyderabad.
Turning his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Reddy challenged the BJP to debate its 12-year record at the Centre against his government’s two-and-a-half-year tenure in Telangana and the BRS’ decade in power.
“Let’s have a discussion – 10 years of BRS, 12 years of Narendra Modi and two-and-a-half years of our government. Modi promised Rs 15 lakh in every poor person’s bank account. Whose account received it? He promised to double farmers’ income and create two crore jobs every year. Where are those jobs? Show us the results,” he said.
In a sharp political swipe, Reddy blamed the BJP for seeking votes solely in PM Modi’s name.
“Whether it is a ward election, a sarpanch poll or a municipality, they ask for votes saying Modi is coming. Elections should be fought on the work done by local leaders, not by projecting one face,” he said.
The Chief Minister also launched a scathing attack on former chief minister and BRS president K Chandrashekar Rao, accusing him of leaving behind a legacy of widespread liquor consumption.
“He destroyed every culture except drinking culture. Belt shops came up in every locality, liquor reached every street and even children were exposed to alcoholism. Women and families have suffered the consequences of that model,” he alleged.
Earlier, addressing BJP workers in Warangal and later at the party’s state executive meeting in Hyderabad, Nitin Nabin declared that the BJP would form a “double-engine government” in Telangana in 2028. He also accused the Congress government of failing to fulfil its promises, alleged corruption through the “RR Tax”, opposed the Muslim reservations and declared that the BJP would expand its base in the state under PM Modi’s leadership.
