HYDERABAD: A day after TRS’ Pragathi Nivedana meeting, Congress leaders engaged in a war of words with TRS leaders over the success of the meeting. “The meeting was a great flop show, and the era of KCR is coming to an end,” the Congress leaders said on Monday, while the TRS leaders claimed that within the short span of ten days, they were able to organise a massive meeting.
“Pragathi Nivedana meeting proved the critics wrong and beat all the past records of public meetings,” TRS leaders Karne Prabhakar, Gattu Ramachander Rao and G Balamallu claimed. They alleged that the Congress was making cheap comments against the public meeting. It showed the bankruptcy of ideas in Congress, they said. The TRS leaders said that around 25 lakh attended the public meeting, however, some of the people could not reach the venue as they were stuck in traffic.
Another TRS leader Danam Nagender said, “People at Gandhi Bhavan are talking about “Uttam Hatao - Congress Bachao. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao did not criticise the Opposition as it was meant for presenting the progress report. But, in coming days, the CM will tear into the Opposition. Uttam Kumar Reddy should tell people about his recent secret meeting with BJP president Amit Shah.”
TRS MP Balka Suman said, “The Congress leaders are paper tigers and TV tigers, and they could not accept the huge success of TRS meeting. TRS had organised a huge meeting with 20 lakh people in Warangal in 2001. The TRS rewrote its 2001 history on Sunday.” TRS MLA Jeevan Reddy said that a huge public meeting was held some years ago in West Bengal, and that the TRS’ Sunday meeting was bigger than the Bengal meeting.
From the Opposition side, Congress senior leader DK Aruna said that the TRS’ public meeting was a big flop show. “Only around three lakh people attended the meeting,” she said. The public meeting was an indication that the TRS has lost ground in the state, Aruna said. As there was no good crowd, the CM’s speech too turned out to be a lacklustre one, she said.
AICC secretary Madhu Yashki Gowd said that the era of KCR in state politics was coming to an end and whenever elections were held the Congress would come to power. “KCR is doing ‘gulamgiri’ of Prime Minister Modi,” Yashki alleged. When KCR could convince Modi to give nod for new zonal system, why did he fail to bring 12 per cent reservations for Muslims, the AICC secretary wondered.
‘Only 3 lakh people attended TRS meeting’
Hyderabad: Telangana Praja Samithi (TPS) president Neera Kishore on Monday said that Pragathi Nivedana meeting was a failure and merely three lakh people attended it.In a statement here on Monday, she alleged that the show was a flop and the people did not respond to it though about `300 crore was spent. Despite tall claims made by the ruling party, only about 3 lakh people attended the meet against the expectations of 25 lakh people, she fumed. The TPS chief expressed dismay that the people were taken for a ride by the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao by diverting thousands of RTC buses to the meet. The state government had failed in all fronts, she alleged.