CM Revanth: Lok Sabha 2024 polls will focus on reservations Vs cancellations

Hyderabad: Lok Sabha 2024 elections are about reservations versus cancellation of reservations, said chief minister Revanth Reddy while releasing the ‘chargesheet of 10-years of misrule of Bharatiya Janata Party’ on Thursday.

Banners and posters elaborating ‘BJP’s misrule’ were distributed to party workers who came for the event and they were asked to spread the message to the people. The Gandhi Bhawan premises at Nampally were also decked up with banners about BJP misgovernance.

Cancellation of reservations

CM Revanth said, “Those who vote for the BJP are voting for cancellation of reservations. The agenda of the BJP is to get 400 seats to abolish reservations. They are against reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. The BJP is implementing an RSS policy which was to abolish reservation by 2025. RSS will complete 100 years in 2025.”

The plan of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is to opt for reservations in proportion to the total population, said Reddy. “BJP is conspiring against the Congress party as they don’t want this to happen. The BJP is trying to win by spreading malicious propaganda against the Congress party,” he said.

A chargesheet about lies

In the banners, posters and hoardings put up by the Congress party the following points were highlighted:

- The BJP promised 20 crore jobs in 10 years but only 7 lakh jobs were created.

- Corporate law to govern farmers who are demanding implementation of MSP

- Increase in prices of essential commodities under the BJP resulting in a decrease in savings and more expenditure for every household.

- Every industry is burdened due to GST and exploitation in the name of tax on even everyday objects.

- Financial burdens with a debt of RS 168 lakh crores.

Protection to Constitution

Deputy chief minister of Telangana Bhatti Vikramarka said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is going to protect the constitution and the rights of the people.

Bhatti said, “Every Congress worker is going to take this chargesheet to the people of Telangana. PM Modi wants the wealth of the country to be in the hands of few. He is trying to divide the people on the basis of religion and is trying to create a situation for communal riots.”

He added, “The mission of the Congress party is to divide the wealth among the majority of the population by caste census.”

Congress lists ‘betrayals of BJP’

The Congress leaders also distributed a ‘list of betrayals by the BJP to Telangana’. Some of them were:

- BJP and PM Modi mocked the formation of Telangana in the Parliament.

- Forcibly merged 211 villages from seven mandals of Khammam district into Andhra Pradesh.

- The BJP did not implement a single assurance from the bifurcation act like the Bayyaram Steel Plant, Kazipet Railway Coach Factory, 2400 MW NTPC power plant, tribal and horticulture universities.

Discrimination in fund allocation

- For every rupee of tax paid, Telangana gets back only Rs 43 paise. In contrast, the BJP gives Rs 7.06 to Bihar, Rs 2.73 to UP, Rs 2.63 to Assam, and Rs 2.42 to Madhya Pradesh for every rupee spent.

- The BJP did not release Rs 4,000 crores GST compensation due for Telangana, Rs 24,205 crores recommended by the NITI Aayog, and Rs 1,800 crores grant for the development of backward districts.

- The BJP did not allocate a single rupee for Telangana in the 2024-25 budget. It did not allocate even a rupee to the Mulugu Tribal University or Nizamabad Turmeric Board. It allocated Rs 1,000 crores for Kumbh Mela but only Rs 3.14 crores for Sammakka Sarakka Jatara.

- The BJP provided no assistance when Telangana faced floods. It did not help even when Hyderabad was devastated by severe floods in 2020.

- In 2023, the BJP gave Rs 1,420.80 crores to Maharashtra, Rs 707.60 crores to Odisha, Rs 624.40 crores to Bihar, and Rs 584 crores to Gujarat under disaster relief funds, but neglected Telangana.

- The BJP, which promised to provide a house to every poor family by 2022, did not build any houses in Telangana at all.

- Loss of lakhs of jobs due to privatisation of public sector enterprises like BHEL, BSNL, LIC, BDL, HAL, DRDL which were built by Congress in Hyderabad.

- The BJP did not grant national project status to any irrigation project in Telangana, including the Palamuru-Rangareddy LI project.

- Telangana lost 13.9 lakh jobs and Rs 2.19 lakh crores investments as a result of the BJP cancelling the ITIR project given by Congress.

- The BJP has abandoned Hyderabad-Warangal and Hyderabad-Nagpur Industrial Corridors, Fab City, Sileru Power Project, establishment of Narayanpet Handloom Park, and revival of Adilabad Cement Factory.

- The BJP did not establish a single new airport, dry port or industrial park in Telangana.

- It did not develop Warangal and Karimnagar as smart cities.

- The BJP is privatising coal mines allocated to Singareni by the Congress government and it auctioned Kalyan Khani, Koyagudem, Sattupalli, and Shravanapalli coal blocks.

- The BJP failed in construction of railway lines on Manoharabad-Kothapalli, Bhadrachalam Road-Sattupalli, Peddapalli-Nizamabad, Medak-Akkannapet routes, doubling of Secunderabad-Mahabubnagar, Mudkhed-Medchal railway lines, and third railway line on Kazipet-Vijayawada routes.

- The BJP did not give even one IIM, IIT, Central university or medical college to Telangana.

- It has not sanctioned a single Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya to Telangana since 2014. The discrimination against Telangana is in establishment of Sainik Schools and Kendriya Vidyalayas.

The list of more Central funds which were due but not given to Telangana have been listed by the Congress party in their posters and banners.