Nehru Forced The Telangana-Andhra Merger: KCR

Campaigning in the Gajwel Assembly constituency on the last day of campaigning for the Telangana Assembly elections, TRS chief KCR claimed that Chief Minister of erstwhile Hyderabad State Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was forced to merge Telangana with Andhra under the pressure of the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

"Ramakrishna Rao was scared of Nehru and merged the Hyderabad State with Andhra without any second thought. When press persons had asked him about the merger at the Begumpet Airport on his return from Delhi, Ramakrishna Rao stated that Nehru had directed him to merge the two states," KCR said.

KCR alleged that post merger, all the successive governments of the united Andhra Pradesh had destroyed the Telangana region systematically, crushed every sector, and crumbled the lives of the people of the region.

He also said that after achieving statehood for Telangana after a 14-year long struggle, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu was once again trying to make inroads into Telangana with polls as an excuse, and that the Congress "sannasulu", without shame, had forged an alliance with the TDP to prevent the welfare state of Telangana from moving ahead on the growth trajectory.

"It is well known that Naidu wrote 30 letters to the Centre against Telangana projects. So there is no reason why the people will vote for the Congress and the TDP alliance in the upcoming elections," he said, and appealed to the people to vote the TRS back into power so that the party could further enhance the welfare schemes in the state.