BJP, TRS Dustbins For Congress: Uttam

TPCC President and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy has recently been very busy wooing voters in two of Telangana's graduates' constituencies - Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam and Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar - ahead of the upcoming MLC elections.

Speaking at two different election meetings, Reddy today said that the Congress was receiving tremendous support from the people of the state in its ongoing campaign for the elections.

Exuding confidence about the prospects of the two Congress candidates, Ramulu Naik and G Chinna Reddy, he said that the party would surely taste success in the March 14 polls owing to its organisational strength, and the hard work of its leaders and cadres.

"Our party is lucky to have a great organisational network. We have been able to mobilise supporters in all the six poll-bound districts because the PCC and DCC office bearers, the leaders, and the officials of all the frontal departments and cells have been working actively to ensure the victory of our candidates in the upcoming elections. And anyway, neither the TRS nor the BJP has the reach or the strength to face off against Ramulu Naik or Chinna Reddy. So, they have resorted to luring voters with money and other sops," the TPCC head claimed.

He added that the TRS was unlikely to garner much support as it had "disappointed all sections of society" after coming to power.

"The government employees, the teachers, the unemployed youth and the students of the state have repeatedly been cheated by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who is himself living an opulent life in a palatial bungalow worth Rs 1,000 crore, the Pragathi Bhavan. He is so inured to the problems being faced by the people of Telangana that he has not once held a meeting to address their issues. The employees, for instance, have been waiting endlessly for the release and implementation of a revised PRC. However, the CM seems unbothered by their demands. Lakhs of students too are suffering under the TRS regime due to the lack of funds and infrastructural facilities, while the unemployed youth have been left neglected after big promises were made to them. The BJP-led Centre and our state government are equally responsible for the plight of various sections of society. Under these circumstances, the people of the state are looking to the Congress for a solution. They have now realised that when the Congress was in power, they did not have to contend with such problems," the leader said.

Reddy also ridiculed the TRS and the BJP for trying to "poach" Congress leaders, and asserted that his party would not be affected or weakened by such "ploys"

He then lashed out at the TRS' ongoing enrolment drive and accused the party of meeting its membership targets by "luring" people with insurance policies and medi-claim benefits instead of enrolling them on an ideological basis, and added, "By offering incentives for enrolment, the TRS may be able to achieve its membership targets. It will not, however, be able create a disciplined and dedicated army of party workers."

Attacking the Congress' other rival, the BJP, the TPCC chief mocked the latter for its "ridiculous" attempt to "poach" the leaders of his party with its Operation Aakarshan.

"Telangana's BJP leaders are acting like scavengers, searching for some disgruntled elements within the Congress. Earlier, the TRS had played the role of the trash can of our party where all the unimportant and irrelevant leaders were dumped. Since the TRS' bin is almost full, the BJP has hurriedly come forward to take its place as the new Congress dustbin," he said.

Reiterating his belief that defections would not affect the party, Reddy compared the Congress to a factory that mass-produced leaders.

"We are a cadre-based party where many leaders come and go. It is the cadre that remains firm at the ground-level and never switches loyalties for money or prestige. Each Congress worker is so capable that their qualities and political understanding are far better than most state-level leaders of the other parties. Our party has the capacity to produce leaders in abundance while the TRS and BJP can only survive by behaving like vultures," the leader asserted.

He claimed that of the many leaders "manufactured" by the party, those who had defected to the TRS and the BJP were the ones who had helped the two parties gain strength and acceptance in Telangana.

"Even TRS chief KCR began his political career with the Congress. In fact, almost half the state cabinet, and the ruling party's MPs, MLAs and MLCs are ex-Congressmen. Similarly, the BJP, which has been trying desperately to gain some prominence in Telangana, has been trying to do so by scavenging from our party. After all, even BJP national Vice-President D K Aruna originally belonged to the Congress," he said.

With his words of praise for the party's cadre, Reddy then encouraged them to work hard to ensure the victory of the Congress in the upcoming MLC elections.