Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar today claimed that it was the saffron party that was responsible for the TRS government's decision to announce a 30% fitment for the government employees and teachers of the state.
Speaking to the media on the announcement, he said, "Today, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao announced a pay hike of 30% for the employees of the state. I am very happy to see this as it is not only a victory for the employees but also one for our party. The credit for the decision goes to us. We had organised numerous protests on the issue and had demanded that the TRS regime declare a fitment of 43% for the employees. Some of our cadres and leaders even went to jail over the issue. But what really pushed the CM to announce the fitment was
our victory in last year's Dubbaka by-election. He saw that the people of the state were supporting us and was left fearful about our rising popularity. Another blow to the TRS came with the
huge rise in our vote share in the recent GHMC elections. Therefore, I would say again that the fitment is a result of the BJP's activities in Telangana."
"While I am happy to see that the fitment has been pushed up, the employees who had been demanding a fitment of at least 43% have been left disappointed," Kumar added.
The outspoken BJP chief has often claimed that the party's meteoric rise in Telangana is a source of great worry to the ruling party. Just yesterday, he had alleged that the TRS leaders had
threatened the graduate voters in the two graduates' constituencies of Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam and Hyderabad-Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy in order to secure votes in the recent MLC elections. He claimed that the very fact that the ruling party had to resort to "underhand means" to secure the two MLC seats was a win for his party since it showed how scared the former was of the BJP.