VHR Plays "Local Candidate" Card To Win Amberpet Seat

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha Member V Hanmantha Rao on Monday triggered a debate of candidates being "local" vs. "non-local".

Speaking to media persons here, VHR, who is contesting as the Congress candidate from the Amberpet Assembly seat, said that when people from outside a constituency could come and win the seat, then why couldn't local people win the same seat.

"Since I had already been given the Rajya Sabha ticket 4 times, it would be difficult to get it another time, and so the Congress High Command asked me to contest the MLA elections this time," he said.

It may be mentioned that VHR strongly opposed the candidate of his own party, the then minorities welfare minister Md Fareeduddin, who was shifted to Amberpet after the Zaheerabad seat got reserved for SCs due to delimitation.

VHR is now trying to play the same "local" and "non-local" card in the Amberpet seat to lure voters. Admitting that he lived in Delhi most of the time, he claimed that he never forgot the local issues of his area, and always worked for the people here.

Criticizing TRS party chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, VHR called him a person who changes his words with the seasons, and cannot be believed. Attributing the formation of Telangana to the Congress and the firm commitment of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he said that people have been watching the whole episode and they would decide the future.

He said that KCR had forgotten his promise given to the Congress before the bifurcation, and was now working with a personal agenda.

He also criticized the TDP-BJP alliance, and said, "Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu opposed Telangana at every point, and the so-called national party BJP is now joining hands with such a party."

He asked how the BJP could then go to public and seek votes in Telangana.

About his ambitions, he said that he had missed the chance to become the Chief Minister twice in the past. "This time I will focus on winning the elections. Only then comes the matter of who will become the CM," he said. (INN)