HYDERABAD: After the Telangana Rashtra Samiti blamed Eatala Rajender for implementation of the Dalit Bandhu scheme getting deferred, the BJP candidate for Huzurabad bypoll denied the charge.
Rajender, who was in the midst of the election campaign in Jammikunta, said that he was ready to face any punishment if the TRS proved that he had petitioned the ECI against Dalit Bandhu. He said that quite a number of beneficiaries had not received the benefit yet, which only showed that Rao was delaying the transfers of money on purpose, and instead waiting for the ECI to put its foot firmly down.
Meanwhile, in Hyderabad, BJP MP Dharmapuri Arvind said a high-ranking official in the Finance Department had confided in him that implementation of the scheme in Telangana was impossible, as the State’s economy remained off-kilter.
Speaking to mediapersons at the BJP’s party office, he said the Chief Minister himself had admitted that he had introduced the scheme to gain political mileage, and had now got it stalled because he couldn’t afford it anymore.
Rubbishing TRS' claim that Rajender had written to the ECI petitioning against the scheme, he said the TRS was carrying out a campaign of calumny against Rajender.
Meanwhile, BJP State vice-president Vijaya Rama Rao said it was the Chief Minister who prompted the Forum for Good Governance to write to the ECI to halt the scheme’s implementation, as the latter did not want to help Dalits.
Throughout the day, social media platforms, particularly Twitter, was abuzz with posts rousing hatred against the BJP among people. The barrage of tweets was so much that the anti-BJP campaign trended nationally.