Resign & Contest Elections, KCR Asks Survey Critics

TRS supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today threw a challenge back to the Congress MLAs to resign from their posts and contest elections afresh if they had the confidence and courage.

The Chief Minister was speaking after welcoming Telugu Desam Party politburo member and former MP Ramesh Rathod, Adilabad District Congress Committee president Ravinder Rao and several others into the TRS fold at Telangana Bhavan by offering them the TRS' traditional pink shawls.

KCR said that Rathod and Reddy had a bright future in the TRS, and expressed happiness at their decision to join the ruling party.

Speaking on the occasion, KCR lashed out at the Congress and BJP leaders for making "mindless" comments on the TRS survey of MLAs' performance. (The CM claimed that that survey showed that the TRS would bag 111 seats, the Congress two, the MIM six and the BJP nil in the 2019 elections.)

The Congress leaders, instead of indulging in loose and mad talk, should resign from their Assembly memberships and contest elections afresh if they were confident of their win, the CM said.

"It will be clear who will win and who will be defeated if they go for re-elections," he said.

He also railed at the BJP and the Congress for their remarks against the survey. "If my survey is bogus, is it true that the one conducted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also a bogus one?" he asked.

The Congress leaders should say why the electorate would vote for them, he said. The people were fully aware of what the Congress had done for 70 years, he said.

He added that the people were firmly with the TRS for its welfare and development programs. While the previous Congress and TDP governments had forced Telangana's people to cry out for power supply, the TRS solved the power crisis immediately upon taking power and was able to give uninterrupted power supply, he said. He also said that 70,000 additional acres were now being irrigated in Adilabad district.

"We have done what we said we would, and the Opposition is upset by the welfare schemes and the completion of the irrigation projects in the district."

Those who joined the TRS today also include Telugu Yuvatha state president Rithesh Rathod, Telangana TDP Adilabad district convener Yunis Akbani, Komaram Bheem district convener Abdul Kalam, former market committee chairman Lakshman Rao, ST cell leader Bharath Chowhan, Namdev, Bhutto, and leaders and activists of 30 mandals, including presidents, secretaries, chairmen of 10 PACs, MPTCs, sarpanches and others.