HYDERABAD: BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Friday tried to remind Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has been alleging “vote chori” by the BJP, of the brazen “MLA chori” carried out by his own party in Telangana.
In a press statement issued here, Rama Rao said: “If stealing votes is a crime, then stealing the elected people’s representatives is a far bigger crime. It amounts to daylight murder of democracy.”
“If he (Rahul Gandhi) has any shame, he must ensure that the MLAs who were elected on the BRS symbol and later defected to Congress immediately resign and face the people’s mandate. Only then, he will have the moral right to lecture about vote chori,” he added.
Rama Rao warned that the people of Telangana despise the Congress’ politics of defections.
Meanwhile, Rama Rao came down heavily on the Karnataka Congress government for deciding to raise the Almatti dam height, calling it a “death warrant” for Telangana farmers.
He slammed Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for “luxuriating in Delhi” while a dangerous conspiracy was being hatched against Telangana’s farmers.
The BRS leader pointed out that the Karnataka Cabinet, three days ago, decided to raise Almatti’s height from 519 feet to 524 feet.
He alleged that this was not merely for an additional 100 tmcft of water, but part of a conspiracy to deprive Telangana of its rightful share of Krishna waters and turn erstwhile Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts into deserts.
“Congress is in power in Karnataka and Telangana. You have neither the courage to speak nor the guts to resist when Telangana farmers’ lives are at stake,” he told Revanth Reddy.