Exuding confidence about the Congress' prospects in the upcoming Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly by-election, senior leader and former minister Mohammad Ali Shabbir today said that the party was getting a tremendous response from the people of the constituency during its ongoing election campaign.
"People are turning up in large numbers to attend the public meetings and rallies being organised by the Congress in Nagarjuna Sagar. They are eager to elect K Jana Reddy as the new MLA. Women, especially, have been very vocal in their support for our party's candidate. We are confident that a majority of the women and the youth in the region will vote in favour of Jana Reddy on April 17," he told the media after a meeting with the residents of Anamula Mandal's Marrepally village.
The Congress leader also said that the Congress has intensified its campaign and was focusing on door-to-door campaigns and interactive meetings with the voters.
"Instead of simply delivering lengthy speeches, we are requesting the locals to express their grievances. This approach has helped us expose the failures of the TRS government," he explained.
Shabbir Ali then claimed that people were vexed with the state government, and were rejecting the false promises of the ruling party's leaders, and thundered, "Each and every family has been badly affected by the ever-rising prices of fuel and other essential commodities. Housewives are unable to run their homes due to the inflation coupled with sharp falls in family incomes. The income cuts are the result of mass layoffs and unemployment. This proves that the TRS regime had only created a false picture of the success of its welfare schemes when in reality, the lives of common people have become miserable ever since the TRS came to power."
"While Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is living a lavish life in the palatial Pragathi Bhavan, the people of Telangana are still waiting for their double-bedroom houses. KCR has accommodated about 40 members of his family, including his son, daughter, son-in-law and nephew, into the state's administration. They have well-paying jobs as a result. Yet he does not seem to have any concern for the lakhs of educated youth who are unable to find jobs - there is a youngster in Marrepally who remains unemployed although he has a PhD in economics, for instance. After all this, the people have no reason to support the TRS," he fumed.
Highlighting the KCR government's alleged apathy towards the minorities, Dalits, STs and BCs in the state, the former minister said that sick of the neglectful attitude of the current government, the marginalised communities in Telangana seemed almost unanimous in their intention to elect Jana Reddy.
"This time, KCR's money power and misuse of official machinery might not work in his favour. The TRS' leaders are trying to lure voters by spending over Rs 100 crore. But the people of Nagarjuna Sagar will not sell their votes at any cost. They have decided to punish the TRS and the BJP for their flawed policymaking, and will ensure the victory of Jana Reddy with a majority of not less than 50,000 votes," he said.
"The current campaign paints a sad picture of the TRS - senior leaders and ministers, including Jagadish Reddy, Mahmood Ali, Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Srinivas Goud, are campaigning hard to protect themselves from being
dropped from the state Cabinet after the declaration of results. The CM already knows that Jana Reddy will win this election. That is why he has assigned a handful of ministers to campaigning duty so he can use Nomula Bhagat's defeat as an excuse to drop them from the Cabinet next month," Shabbir Ali claimed.
He also claimed that Jana Reddy would enjoy a historic win, and that the politics of Telangana would change for the better after the declaration of the by-election results on May 2.