HYDERABAD: The much-anticipated meeting of suspended BRS leaders — former Minister Jupally Krishna Rao and former MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy — with Congress high command took place at last at Delhi on Monday, paving the way for their formal induction into the party. After their meeting with party top brass — Rahul Gandhi and AICC president Mallikharjun Khage, Srinivasa Reddy announced that he will join the party on July 2 at a public meeting in Khammam and Krishna Rao declared that he will join the party on July 14 or 16 at a public meeting in Mahbubnagar district.
Immediately after announcing their intent to join the Congress, Krishna Rao said that “not even God will pardon the people if they do not vote for the Congress” while Srinivasa Reddy threw a challenge to the BRS to hold a massive public meeting at Khammam.
The duo, along with 33 other leaders who were also set to join the Congress, met Kharge and Rahul Gandhi during a joint meeting held at AICC headquarters. Later, they called on Priyanka Gandhi. Rahul has given the nod to attend Khammam public meeting, and Priyanka agreed to attend Mahbubnagar public meeting.
During the 30-minute meeting, which was attended by all the top leaders from Telangana Congress, Rahul called upon his party men and yet-to-join leaders to work towards “KCR Hatao, Telangana Bachao” (dethrone KCR and save Telangana) objective.
Meanwhile, TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy is learnt to have expressed his delight over former party leaders like Krishna Rao returning to the party fold.
‘Courageous decision’
Addressing a press conference later in the day, Srinivasa Reddy stated that they have decided to join the Congress party after collecting popular opinion through extensive consultations with the people by organising a series of Athmeeya Sammelanam programmes, meetings with intellectuals over a span of six months, and surveys. He claimed that over 80 per cent of the anti-incumbency vote is in favour of the Congress.
He said that they chose the grand old party not just because they were insulted by the BRS, but because the promises and aspirations of Telangana were not fulfilled. He described his decision to join the Congress as a courageous one as he claimed to have already started facing trouble with regard to his family-owned businesses.
“When I was in BRS, the Ministers and MPs shared their experiences as to how they were insulted in the party. The posts are not that important, but self-respect is. The Congress graph is rising after Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, and victory in Karnataka Assembly elections, due to which BJP’s glow has diminished,” Srinivasa Reddy said.
He added that they have dropped the idea of floating a new party with the amalgamation of disgruntled leaders in all parties to ensure that the anti-incumbency vote will not split.
Throwing a challenge at the BRS, Srinivasa Reddy said that they will organise a meeting with more people than the BRS public meeting held at Khammam as part of its State Formation celebrations.
“BRS leaders can count the number of people attending the public meeting. It’s a challenge,” he said.
Lashing out at the BRS, Krishna Rao said that under Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s dispensation, democracy crashed to abysmal depths while corruption hit the skies. He said that KCR thinks only on the lines of how to win elections, and what “false promises” to make to win the elections. “The fascist and autocratic BRS government has no moral right to rule the State for the third time. There is no minimum respect in the BRS. He (KCR) does not even consider people to be humans. People will soon teach him a befitting lesson,” he said. He added that people should vote for Congress to “express their gratitude to Sonia amma (Sonia Gandhi) for giving Telangana State”.
RAHUL TO MEET TPCC LEADERS TODAY
Hyderabad: As the Assembly elections draw close in Telangana, Rahul Gandhi has convened a crucial meeting with the leaders of party’s State unit in Delhi on Tuesday. According to sources, the meeting will discuss various proposals on deriving declarations for SCs, STs, BCs, minorities and women. Potential new joinings from the BRS and the BJP will also be on the agenda. The party has asked all the members of TPCC political affairs committee (PAC) to attend the meeting. Senior leaders, including former TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy and TPCC working president T Jayaprakash Reddy, are said to be gearing up to complain against a few of their party colleagues over an alleged “hate campaign” against them.