KARIMNAGAR: BRS working president and Sircilla MLA KT Rama Rao on Wednesday said that his party lost the recent Assembly election narrowly by polling just 1.85 per cent fewer votes than the Congress.
Addressing the BRS social media warriors in Karimangar, the former IT minister said: “It was not such a major disaster. It was a close fight.” He exuded confidence that the party would bounce back under the leadership of party supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao.
He asked the social media activists not to be disheartened by the temporary setback the party had suffered in the recent elections but to hold on as KCR would return as the chief minister of the state.
He said the Congress gained an edge over the BRS in the Assembly elections as the pink party lost 14 seats by a very narrow margin. “The Congress won by playing on the sentiments of the people. The people did not vote for Congress because the BRS was bad,” he insisted.
The BRS leader said in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, the party will show its real calibre by winning a majority of seats.
He urged the social media activists not to post messages blaming the people for the electoral reverses that the party had suffered in the Assembly elections. “At every mandal headquarters, the social media warriors should expose the failures of the Congress government in the state.”
The notification for the by-election for filling the two MLC berths under the MLA quota was an indication of the Congress and the BJP working together. The Election Commission held separate elections for both the seats, to help the Congress, he said, and dismissed the allegation that the BRS was B team of the saffron party.
He alleged that the Congress had made “420 promises” and managed to come to power. He wanted the social media warriors to question the government on its failure in delivering on its promises. “If Revanth Reddy and Narendra Modi came to power at the state and the Centre, it was because of the deft use of social media,” he said.
Calling Revanth Reddy a ‘gumpu mestry’ (head mason), he said that if the Congress does not implement its promises, the BRS should fight till the beneficiaries get the benefits promised to them. In Karimnagar Lok Sabha, the BRS secured 5,249 more votes than the Congress if all the votes polled in all the seven segments were counted, he said.
He came down on BJP MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar and threw a challenge at him to come for an open debate on the development of the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency.
Former MP B Vinod Kumar who is tipped to be the BRS nominee for the Karimangar Lok Sabha seat, also took part in the meeting.