Mallu Ravi Flays TRS For "Using" Narasimha Rao's Image

Since today was the last day of campaigning for the upcoming MLC elections in the graduates' constituencies of Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam and Hyderabad-Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy, the leaders of Telangana's political parties were seen making fervent last-minute attempts to solicit support for their respective parties' candidates.

TPCC Vice President Mallu Ravi also tried to garner support for the Congress' candidates for the two posts, Ramulu Naik and G Chinna Reddy, but not by promoting them. Instead, the leader launched a scathing attack on the party's rival, the TRS, and denounced its attempt to win votes through "cheap" means.

Addressing the media, he lashed out at the ruling party, alleging that its leaders were "damaging" the reputation of former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao by "using" his legacy and photographs to win over voters in the Hyderabad-Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy constituency.

"The TRS has stooped to jaw-droppingly low levels this time. It is even using PVNR's picture to garner support for its MLC candidates. They have been portraying him, a true-blue Congress leader who is known and respected globally, as just another local leader simply to secure electoral gains in the upcoming elections. Using pictures of a global leader like him to campaign for elections is an insult to his great legacy," Ravi fumed.

"What this desperate attempt to hijack the former PM's legacy shows is that the TRS is not confident about winning the elections on its own steam. That is why it even decided to field PVNR's daughter, Surabhi Vani Devi, from the Hyderabad-Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy seat, one the pink party has repeatedly failed to clinch," he added.

Referring to the page-long advertisements printed by the TRS seeking the votes of the graduate voters for Narasimha Rao's daughter Vani Devi, that contained pictures of the former PM, he said that the Congress candidate, former minister Chinna Reddy, did not have the financial ability to indulge in such "paltry" promotional stunts.

Calling the ruling party's efforts to "use" the former PM's legacy misled, he added, "The TRS government should realise that PVNR loyalists will always support the Congress, his own party. By using the leader's pictures, the party has, therefore, unwittingly given our party free publicity."

Ravi then reiterated that the former PM was a Congress leader, and claimed, "The was the party through which PVNR had risen in the nation's political arena was ours. The credit for giving India an excellent PM, therefore, goes to our party."

Another Congress bigwig, TPCC head N Uttam Kumar Reddy, also echoed Ravi's displeasure, and said, "Chief Minister K Chandraskhekar Rao has realised that he has lost all credibility among Telangana's people. He knows they will not trust him again. So, he has been forced to use the picture of former PM Narasimha Rao, a leader who lived and died as a Congressman, to beg for votes. The print advertisement published by the TRS today, with a picture of the former PM, is a victory for the Congress."