Will Observe Hyderabad Liberation Day From 2019: BJP

Telangana BJP president Dr K Laxman today asserted that his party would wrest power in the 2019 Assembly elections and develop the birth places of Hyderabad freedom fighters into historic centres for the benefit of posterity.

The state BJP's Telangana Vimochana Yatra reached Yerrupalem village in Khammam district on the third day of the rally. There, Dr Laxman felicitated Satyavathi and Kishan Rao, the kin of some Hyderabad freedom fighters. Addressing the gathering, Laxman alleged that the previous Congress governments had totally forgotten those who had fought the erstwhile Nizam government. He also alleged that both the Congress and the TRS were resorting to votebank politics and causing injustice to the heroes of the Hyderabad freedom struggle.

Dr Laxman also slammed the KCR government for inducting anti-Telangana leaders into the cabinet and "shamelessly" hugging the MIM, which had opposed statehood for Telangana fiercely, thereby hurting the self-respect of the Telangana people.

He also accused Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of emulating the tyrannical rule of the erstwhile Nizam. He pointed out how the farmers who were agitating for remunerative prices for their produce were handcuffed, how dalits in Nerella were physically tortured by the police and how KCR removed Dharna Chowk from Indira Park in Hyderabad.

Though the state government had been creating hurdles for the Telangana Vimochana Yatra, the people everywhere were according a rousing welcome to the rally, he claimed.

BJP national general secretary Muralidhar Rao, too, demanded that the KCR government officially celebrate September 17 as Hyderabad Independence Day.

A large number of party leaders were present.