HYDERABAD: Union Minister for Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy on Saturday challenged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to arrest BRS leader and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao or step down if he lacked the courage to do so. Accusing the Congress of shielding KCR, Kishan Reddy demanded that the chief minister come clean on the alleged secret understanding between the ruling party and the BRS.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP office here, the Union minister alleged that the Congress was indulging in diversionary tactics and vote-bank politics ahead of the municipal elections to cover up its failure to implement election promises.
He claimed that both the Congress and the BRS were staging political dramas as they were unable to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi politically.
Kishan Reddy said infighting among Cabinet ministers over projects and contracts had come out in the open, and accused the chief minister of creating political controversies to divert public attention from these issues.
Terming it unfortunate that Revanth Reddy was speaking about religious reservations instead of focusing on development, he accused the Congress of repeatedly attempting to appease the AIMIM before every election.
He described the chief minister’s announcement of permanent four per cent reservations for Muslims at a religious meeting as vote-bank politics and accused the Congress of taking appeasement to extreme levels. He further alleged that neither KCR nor Revanth Reddy had the capacity to take independent decisions and claimed that both the BRS and the Congress were subservient to the AIMIM.
“KCR, when he was chief minister, used to travel in the back seat of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s vehicle, and Revanth Reddy is doing the same now,” Kishan Reddy alleged.
Taking a swipe at the chief minister, he said Revanth Reddy’s language and conduct had not changed and accused him of making irresponsible statements, levelling false allegations and creating a new controversy every day.
On the issue of hate speech, Kishan Reddy said that if action was to be taken under hate speech laws, it should begin with Revanth Reddy.