HYDERABAD: Reacting to a statement made by Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan in Hyderabad on Tuesday, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Wednesday said that Telangana is indeed the “jagir of the people of Telangana”.
During a meet-the-press programme organised here, Rama Rao said that Telangana belongs to its people and warned against attempts to undermine the spirit and sacrifices behind the separate statehood movement.
“Telangana belongs to four crore people who live here and those who struggled for six decades to achieve statehood,” he said.
On Pawan Kalyan’s comments on regionalism, Rama Rao wondered why the Telangana statehood movement was being portrayed negatively while similar movements elsewhere were celebrated.
“If regionalism is dangerous, can Potti Sreeramulu’s 58-day fast demanding a separate Andhra state be considered regionalism?” he asked.
The former minister alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was encouraging economic regionalism by diverting industries and investments away from Telangana to Gujarat.
“When Modi acts only in the interest of Gujarat, was that not regionalism?” he wondered.
Rama Rao also added that no one needs to teach them the National Anthem or nationalism.
The BRS leader, however, said that he has respect for Pawan Kalyan, the deputy CM of Andhra Pradesh and popular film actor.
“If he comes to our home, we will welcome him warmly and serve him Hyderabad biryani. But we will not tolerate anyone coming here and trying to dictate terms to Telangana,” he said.
The Sircilla MLA further said: “Separate Telangana is the result of decades of struggle and sacrifice. Anyone who comes here must recognise and respect that history. We welcome democratic participation, but we will always stand firm in protecting Telangana’s dignity and aspirations.”
Rama Rao said that anyone could establish a political party and contest elections in any state. That was a constitutional right, he said and recalled that Jana Sena contested elections in Telangana in 2023 and even participated in municipal elections.
“Nobody stopped them then, and nobody is stopping them now,” he said and recalled that even the TDP contested in the 2018 elections.
Would review, cancel Future City project once back in power
Rama Rao, meanwhile, described Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy as a ‘hybrid CM’.
“Revanth Reddy is a hybrid CM of the BJP and Congress. That is why he proposed a hybrid model for delimitation of Lok Sabha seats,” he alleged.
He accused the Congress, “the first enemy of Telangana”, of repeatedly betraying the Telangana movement and people’s aspirations.
Rama Rao exuded confidence that the BRS would return to power by securing more than 90 seats in the next Assembly elections.
He also predicted that Revanth would suffer defeat in Kodangal segment.
Alleging that real estate interests were behind the government’s prestigious Future City project, he said that the BRS, if voted to power, would review and cancel the project. He also said that former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is the “trump card” of BRS.