Congress Government Cheated Public On BC Declaration: KTR

BRS working president K T Rama Rao today accused the Congress government of betraying the backward classes by failing to uphold the promises it had made under its BC Declaration a year ago.

"Only God knows what the new government is doing, but most of the existing welfare schemes have been halted," he claimed, pointing to the suspension of programs like Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu under the Revanth Reddy administration.

He also slammed the Congress' recent caste census initiative, describing it as a ploy to secure BC votes, and intended mainly to help with the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra. He questioned the lack of BC reservations in Telangana, and claimed that the BRS had sent a team to study Tamil Nadu's 68% reservation model when it was in power. KTR also asked what happened to the Congress's campaign promise of interest-free loans of up to Rs 10 lakh for BC youth.

"People are beginning to question the sincerity of the Congress leaders," he said, and insisted that local body elections do not proceed until the promised 42% reservation for BCs was implemented.

He also said that the caste survey was being executed poorly. The survey's 175-question questionnaire included intrusive questions such as how much money was in the bank accounts of the respondents, if there were ACs in their houses and if there were refrigerators in their houses, he said, and criticized the Congress for making the survey officials scapegoats for political gains by making them ask so many and such controversial questions.