Telangana Formed Due To Sonia Gandhi: Uttam

TPCC head and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy today made clear his belief that the "entire credit" for the formation of Telangana went to national Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Addressing the Congress rank and file on the occasion of Telangana Formation Day at the Gandhi Bhavan, Reddy said, "I would like to thank AICC president Sonia Gandhi for granting statehood to Telangana on behalf of all the people of the region. The Congress was the party that made many sacrifices to help the people realise their dream of living in a separate Telangana. It was Ms Gandhi who recognised the aspirations of the people and honoured the six-and-a-half-decade-long fight for statehood. She was moved by the sacrifices of our people and granted us statehood."

Coming down heavily on Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for his "misrule", the leader alleged that the CM did not have the courage to even question the Centre about its failure to fulfil the many promises made to Telangana in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.

"Where the BJP government at the Centre failed to implement the promises which were made to Telangana during the bifurcation in 2014, the CM has been unable to bring up the matter for the last seven years. The establishment of a steel factory at Bayyaram, a rail coach factory at Kazipet, and tribal varsities were never pursued. It is equally the responsibility of the party which has been ruling the state for the past seven years to ensure that the promises are fulfilled. However, the TRS regime has failed to pressure the BJP into keeping its word," he fumed.

The MP flayed the state government also for "failing to fulfil the aspirations" of the people of the state and for ruling the state in a way that had not benefited the people.

He then criticised both the Centre and the TRS government for "failing miserably" at handling the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic situation in the state, and alleged that the state government had not done anything to provide the necessary medical infrastructure in the past 15 months of the pandemic, and added, "KCR behaved like Emperor Nero who fiddled as Rome was burning. The CM failed to respond in time, to take measures to control the spread of the disease, to provide free or subsidised treatment to patients, and in controlling the private hospitals from looting the people. He has been a corrupt and lax ruler all these years."

Speaking on the failures of TRS government, Reddy said that the ruling party had not bothered to implement its own promises in the past seven years and cited the regime's non-fulfilment of its promised to start an unemployment allowance as an example.

He then called upon the party cadre to work hard to bring the Congress to power in the 2023 Assembly elections.

Former PCC presidents Ponnala Laxmaiah and V Hanumantha Rao, AICC secretary Madhu Goud Yaskhi, former union minister Balaram Naik, former minister Shabbir Ali, party leaders Anjan Kumar Yadav, Nerella Sarada, B Kishan, Nagesh Mudiraj, Kumar Rao, Mahesh Goud, Srikanth and Mettu Sai were among those who participated in today's program.