Sounding the poll bugle in Telangana, Union Home Minister and BJP veteran Amit Shah on Saturday, May 14, hit out at the TRS government in the state for alleged corruption and unkept promises and said his party is ready to face the polls, due in the state next year. He also said the BJP would end minority reservations in the state and provide the benefit to STs, SCs and backward classes. Addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad which marked the culmination of state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar's second phase of 'padayatra' (foot march), Shah said, “The minority reservation based on religion affects the SC, ST, OBC reservation. We will end minority reservations and increase SC, ST, and OBC reservations.”
Shah was referring to the proposed move by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), to bring in 12% reservation for Muslims in jobs and education, increasing it from the current 4%, in proportion to their percentage in the state’s population. TRS had made the promise during the 2014 elections. In April 2017, the Telangana Assembly passed a Bill for increasing reservations for Muslims from 4% to 12%, and Scheduled Tribes from 6% to 10%. The Bill was sent to the Union government for its nod, however, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have slammed the move in the past, objecting to religion-based reservations.
Shah appealed to the electorate to defeat the ruling TRS and make the saffron party successful in the 2023 elections. “The BJP is ready to face elections even if they are held tomorrow and he can see the writing on the wall about the defeat of TRS in the polls,” Shah claimed.
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"Do we need to change the Nizam of Telangana or not?" he asked the gathering, in an obvious reference to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Accusing the TRS government of failing to fulfil the major planks of separate Telangana agitation of "water, funds and jobs", Shah said BJP, if elected to power, would implement them.
The senior BJP leader, whose party won two Assembly by-polls and made significant gains in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election in the last two years, expressed confidence in the BJP coming to power in the state in the election next year and urged the voters to elect the saffron party to usher in a secure and prosperous Telangana.
Referring to the TRS poll symbol of the car, Shah charged that its steering is in the hands of AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi. On the alleged high-handedness against BJP activists, he claimed attempts were on to make Telangana like West Bengal, an apparent reference to the deaths of party workers in the eastern state, for which the BJP blames the ruling TMC there.
Referring to the suicide of a BJP activist Sai Ganesh at Khammam allegedly due to "police harassment", Shah said the BJP would ensure that those responsible for the party worker's death would be put behind bars. Coming down heavily on the TRS government, Shah slammed the ruling party over alleged corruption.
The ‘Praja Sangrama Yatra’ held by the state BJP president was not for BJP to form the government but to herald the welfare of Dalits, Adivasis, backward classes, farmers, women and youth and to end the family rule, he said, adding it was to uproot the corrupt TRS from power. He alleged that the TRS government failed to implement its promises like double bedroom houses for the poor, distribution of three acres of land to SCs and providing Rs 1,000 crore annually for the welfare of backward classes.
The TRS government led by KCR is changing the names of Union government schemes and funds and claiming them to be its own, he charged.
He also hit out at KCR for not celebrating the 'Telangana Liberation Day' (the day the erstwhile Nizam state merged with Indian Union in 1948) and promised to celebrate it when BJP comes to power. The day is not officially celebrated by the TRS regime due to "fear" of AIMIM, he alleged.
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Saying that a "double-decker government" is needed in Telangana, he urged the voters to elect the BJP to power to realise a prosperous state. Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, BJP MLA Raja Singh and others were present. Raja Singh criticised AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi for visiting the tomb of Aurangazeb in Maharashtra.
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