KCR Rewarding Telangana Movement Traitors: Etala

BJP leader and former minister Etala Rajender today hit out at Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and alleged that the latter was "rewarding" the "traitors" of the Telangana statehood movement.

Without specifically naming his political rival, P Kaushik Reddy, Rajender told the press that KCR had made a "traitor, who had thrown stones" at him (Rajender) during the statehood agitation, an MLC of the state.

Talking about the upcoming by-election in Huzurabad, the leader thundered, "The CM is distributing money earned through illegal means in a pathetic attempt to clinch the Huzurabad seat in the upcoming by-election. In fact, the leaders of the ruling party have already spent Rs 150 crore on this pursuit. Though he claims to be a pro-Dalit leader, KCR has never once garlanded a statue of B R Ambedkar at Tank Bund, and is now providing cash to the Golla Kuruma community only to get their votes in the by-election. If this is not the case, the CM should explain why no persons belonging to the SC, ST and BC communities have been employed at the Pragathi Bhavan."

He demanded that the CM give Rs 10 lakh to all the eligible Dalits of the state instead of giving aid only to the Dalits of Huzurabad, and urged the KCR government to disburse the aid before the release of the notification for the by-election.

The former minister then claimed that the people of Huzurabad were not in any position to believe the CM or the TRS as many promises made to them earlier had not yet been fulfilled. He asserted that, unlike the pink party's leaders, he would "never break the trust" of his people.

Referring to the comments made by Finance Minister T Harish Rao, Rajender only told the press that he would ignore the comments, recalling that he and Harish Rao had after all worked together for 18 years.