Will Quit Politics If Congress Loses 2019: Uttam

Accepting the challenge thrown at him by Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy today announced that his MLA wife Padmavathi Reddy and he would retire from politics if the Congress did not come to power in the next elections.

However, he said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, too, would have to announce that he, along with his son KTR, daughter K Kavitha and nephew T Harish Rao, would also retire from politics if the TRS lost in the same elections.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday, Reddy said that while he was unconditionally accepting KTR's challenge, the provocation only reflected the latter's arrogance. Reddy also said that it was the same arrogance that had caused the TRS leaders to turn a blind eye to the happenings in the state, to the extent that they were not willing to see the sufferings of the common people.

He said that the Chief Minister and his son had been drawing cheap self-publicity through media management with an aim to mislead the people, and that no section of the society had benefited from the TRS regime during the last four years except for the four members of the first family.

Reddy warned that a silent revolution was brewing in Telangana to dethrone the TRS. He reiterated that the Congress would win more than 70 seats in the next elections irrespective of whether they were held in December, or next year.

Reddy also slammed KTR for criticizing the Nehru-Gandhi family. Calling KTR a "bachha", he said that the TRS leader was not aware of the contributions and sacrifices made by the family for the country. He also said that though the family could be counted among the richest families in the country, they made constructive use of that wealth by donating several properties for public cause.

On the other hand, however, there were people like the family members of KCR who had been acting as "commission agents", Reddy said, and alleged that the leaders of the ruling party were taking a 6% commission from contractors of all projects in the state. He also pointed out that while campaigning in the last elections, KCR used to claim that his children had settled down in the USA and were not interested in politics. However immediately after the formation of Telangana the entire family had jumped into politics, and instead of serving the people, were busy looting the state, he alleged.

The TPCC chief also reacted to the personal attacks made by KTR against him, saying that before his foray into politics he had served the nation for a long period as a fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force. He said that he had manned planes and protected the country on the Indo-China and the Indo-Pak borders while risking his life every day, and that he had taken to politics after his retirement to continue serving the people.

Senior Congress leaders including Mallu Ravi, Akula Lalitha, Ram Mohan Reddy, Santosh Reddy, Vamshichand Reddy and Sravan Dasoju were also present at the meeting.