HYDERABAD: Union Minister and BJP state president G Kishan Reddy accused both the ruling Congress and Opposition BRS of kowtowing to the AIMIM.
“They have handed over Hyderabad to the Majlis and want the MIM to win the MLC elections,” Kishan alleged, adding that it was initially assumed that all parties would contest the election but it is now clear that Congress and BRS were backing the AIMIM.
Kishan stated that the MIM tends to align with the ruling party in the state to exploit Hyderabad. He appealed to all voters opposing MIM to support BJP in the MLC elections under the local bodies’ quota in Hyderabad.
Expressing confidence that the saffron party would win the election, Kishan stated that in a democracy, anyone can contest, and the BJP was participating regardless of its numbers. He urged voters from both BRS and Congress to vote against AIMIM.
Kishan also stated that the party’s organisational structure in Telangana would be complete following the appointment of a new BJP state president.
On the occasion of Babu Jagjivan Ram’s birth anniversary, Kishan and his party leaders paid floral tributes at the BJP state office. Addressing the gathering, he recalled Jagjivan Ram’s contributions to the nation, including walking out of Congress during the Emergency, forming a new party, and later merging it with the Janata Party led by Jayaprakash Narayan. Jagjivan Ram served as Union minister and deputy prime minister.
Kishan alleged that in the 1980s, when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led Janata Party and BJP proposed Babu Jagjivan Ram as the Prime Ministerial candidate, the Congress blocked the move. He said Congress could not tolerate a powerful leader from a marginalised community in the top post. “Otherwise, Babu Jagjivan Ram would have become India’s first Dalit prime minister,” he opined.