Congress Slams KCR For Supporting "Anti-Muslim" Kovind

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao extending support to the NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who opposed reservations for minorities, was an injustice to Muslims.

Speaking to the media on Friday along with former union minister S Jaipal Reddy, former MPs Ponnam Prabhakar and Mallu Ravi, and others, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that Kovind had opposed the Ranganath Mishra report, which proposed 10% reservations for Muslims and 5% reservations for Christians in jobs.

He asked the TRS MPs to therefore cast their vote as per their conscience and not by KCR's diktak.

Jaipal Reddy said that former Speaker of Lok Sabha Meira Kumar was an honest person and understood the spirit of the Constitution, whereas Ram Nath Kovind was an "underground" person.

"I didn't see him though he was a Rajya Sabha member for two terms. And Kovind learnt his political lessons in the RSS school. It will be dangerous for the nation if such a person sits in the President's post," he said.

Jaipal Reddy said that Meira Kumar was not only the daughter of former Deputy Prime Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram but also a talented person. He also charged KCR with entering a dark deal with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Presidential election. KCR had extended support to the Prime Minister much before the NDA announced the name of its Presidential candidate, he pointed out, and asked KCR why he was supporting the NDA's candidate.