HYDERABAD: The issue of employment is in prime focus in the campaign for the biennial Graduates’ MLC election. The Opposition Congress and BJP have vehemently refuted claims of the ruling TRS that it provided 1,32,799 jobs since it came to power.Both the parties picked two historic hotspots, which were the epicentre of the Statehood movement — Telangana Martyrs Memorial and Arts College of Osmania University — for their demonstrations. The BJP and Congress invited TRS working president and IT Minister KT Rama Rao to open debates over the number of jobs. It served their campaign well when Rama Rao did not turn up.
The IT Minister has often challenged the Opposition to prove him wrong on the issue. While Congress leader Dasoju Sravan has dramatically offered to slit his throat if indeed KTR’s claims are correct, the BJP’s Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahbubnagar contestant N Ramchander Rao has offered to withdraw his nomination.
It made for great photo ops for the Congress and BJP when the parties set up chairs with ‘KTR’ nameplates written on them to symbolically express that they were ready for the debate.
However, Rama Rao side-stepped these “debate” offers.The battle then moved on to Twitter. Ramchander Rao tweeted with the hashtag #WhereIsKTR. Tongue-in-cheek replies being his strong point, KTR responded saying he was busy searching for data on jobs provided by the Centre.