HYDERABAD: BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar claimed that his two-day tour of Nalgonda and Suryapet, which was intended to put pressure on the State government to procure paddy, was a success, as it had forced the officials to speed up procurement in those districts. “Farmers had brought their produce to the markets 10 days before Dasara festival,” he said.
Addressing the media in Hyderabad on Wednesday, he said that the BJP had not only forced Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to come out of his farmhouse, but also managed to drag him to Dharna Chowk, the platform for democratic protests, which he had ordered to be shut down in the past.
Speaking about the alleged violence perpetrated by TRS workers, he said that 50-70 BJP workers were injured in stone-pelting, and among them, 10-12 had sustained head injuries. He said that farmers were being threatened by TRS workers that their paddy wouldn’t be procured if they spoke to BJP leaders.
“The Chief Minister is directing his party cadre to hunt us down openly in his press meet. You came to power due to the sacrifices made by 1,400 Telangana martyrs. Now, if we are fighting to realise their aspirations, will you hunt us down,” he asked, making it clear that BJP workers were not scared of his ‘threats’. “If procurement was being done properly, why are farmers crying on heaps of paddy at procurement centres,” he asked.
Referring to the Chief Minister’s U-turns on the Union government’s farm bills, he wondered how the former could ask the Centre to declare how much to procure a year, even before any estimates on production.