Buoyed by the response received by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra–after the party changed its name and organised meetings there as part of its plan to expand nationally–Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday, April 14, expressed confidence that his party would win the 2024 Parliamentary elections.
“Definitely we are coming to power in the 2024 elections. Our enemies cannot digest it, but a spark is enough to ignite a fire. Recently when I went to Maharashtra, I could not believe the kind of response I received. In the future, the same kind of response will come from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal too,” the Chief Minister said at the inauguration of the 125-feet Dr Ambedkar statue at Hussain Sagar, Hyderabad. The huge Ambedkar statue was constructed at a cost of Rs 147 crore.
Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dr Ambedkar, and also president of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi party, was the chief guest at the event.
The Chief Minister also announced that he would implement a programme similar to Dalita Bandhu scheme, across the country, for 25 lakh Dalit families every year. Dalita Bandhu is a self-employment scheme for the welfare of Dalits. Under the Dalita Bandhu scheme, eligible Scheduled Caste (SC) people are given Rs 10 lakh through their bank accounts. According to the Telangana government, so far 50,000 Dalit families have availed the scheme in the state.
The CM said that it was a reality from Kashmir to Kanyakumari that Dalits remained poor despite 70 years of Independence.
He also took a veiled dig at the Congress by saying that before the BRS came to power, the Congress government in their 10 years spent merely Rs 16,000 crore towards Dalits, whereas the BRS has so far spent over Rs 1.25 lakh crore for their welfare.
Speaking about the statue, he said that the BRS government did not install the giant statue after somebody demanded it. The BJP had earlier criticised the CM for not fulfilling his promise to build the statue.
KCR said that the statue is a symbol of revolution. He said that he was fortunate to unveil the first-of-its-kind statue of the architect of the Indian Constitution. Further, announcing the celebration of Ambedkar Jayanthi annually in a big manner in the state, the Chief Minister also instituted an award in the name of Ambedkar which would be conferred to people who work for social causes. A fund of Rs 50 crore would be granted towards this, he said.
Speaking at the event, Prakash Ambedkar thanked the Chief Minister for taking forward the vision of Ambedkar by introducing economic alleviation schemes.
He said that the formation of Telangana was in line with Ambedkar’s views that states should be recognised not on the basis of language but on the basis of their economic viability.