Modi, KCR Depriving Lakhs Of Voting Rights: Congress

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had together conspired to deprive lakhs of people of their voting rights by advancing the Assembly elections.

Addressing the Hyderabad Merger Day celebrations after hoisting the national flag at Gandhi Bhavan on Monday, Reddy said that both the BJP government at the Centre and the TRS government in Telangana were trying to throttle democracy in the state through manipulating the electoral rolls. He claimed that the deletion of 20-30 lakh names from the electoral rolls was not incidental but a deliberate move as part of a larger conspiracy, and that the Modi-KCR duo were trying to connive with the Election Commission of India to implement their conspiracy.

He said that the Congress would however not allow this conspiracy to work, and would fight until each and every eligible citizen got enrolled in the voters' list. He demanded that the elections to the Telangana Assembly be held only after carrying out all corrections in the electoral rolls.

Reddy then said that it was the Congress party which had fought for the country's independence and had also merged Hyderabad State into the Indian Union. "After India got independence on August 15, 1947, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Home Minister Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel merged Hyderabad into the Indian Union after police action. The last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan was in favour of merging Hyderabad with Pakistan, and unleashed a reign of terror on the common people through the razakars of Qasim Razvi. But the then Congress government initiated police action, and Hyderabad was finally merged into the Indian Union on 17th September, 1948," he said.

It was again the Congress party which had granted statehood to Telangana. The people would remember all of that, and make the party create the next government in Telangana, he claimed.

Reddy also slammed KCR for going back on his promise of celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day officially after coming to power. He also alleged that the TRS had completely crushed the people's freedoms. He said that leaders of public organisations like Haragopal, Kodandaram, Varavara Rao and others were being harassed using the police. Those elderly people were even beaten up by the police, he claimed. The whole of democracy has been put in peril by harassing four crore people just to please four members of the KCR family, Reddy claimed.

"In order to save democracy under present circumstances, it is essential that the Congress returns to power," Reddy said.

He also announced that Dharna Chowk would be restored within 10 days if the Congress won the next elections, and that the "next Congress government", in consultation with people's organisations, would also establish a mechanism wherein every individual and organisation would be free to express their views on anything.

Making electoral promises thereafter, the TPCC chief said that the Congress, if voted to power, would also announce a new PRC within one month for government employees. The party would also create lakhs of jobs, and in addition, at least 10 lakh youth would be given unemployment allowance of Rs. 3,000 per month.

The Congress would also merge the Road Transport Corporation, resulting in all its employees getting salaries, perks and other benefits on par with the state government staff, and their jobs becoming permanent. The Congress would also fill all vacancies in the RTC, he claimed.

Later in the day, Reddy, along with other senior leaders including J Geetha Reddy, Damodar Raja Narasimha and Gudur Narayana Reddy, visited the Chanchalguda jail to meet ex-MLA T Jayaprakash Reddy alias Jagga Reddy. Speaking to mediapersons later, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that Jagga Reddy had been implicated in a false case by the TRS government. He said that he had assured Jagga Reddy that the entire Congress party was behind him and that he need not worry about anything. He also said that the Congress party, after coming to power, would not spare the police officials who were wrongly targeting the Congress leaders and workers.

Jagga Reddy's wife Nirmala was also present.