Friendship with AIMIM will continue, BRS will surely come back to power in Telangana: CM KCR

Hyderabad: Making no bones about the association with AIMIM party, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday said BRS's friendship with the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party will continue in future also, and the ruling party will come back to power with 7-8 more seats than it got in 2018 Assembly polls.

BRS (then TRS) won 88 seats in the 2018 Assembly polls and its strength increased to 101 in the due course with several other party MLAs joining the ruling party.

Replying to a discussion on "Telangana State formation-progress achieved in the own state" in the assembly, Rao also known as KCR took potshots at NCP chief Sharad Pawar for saying BRS as "B Team of BJP and straight away associated with the saffron party (in Maharashtra)".

Exuding confidence that BRS will come back to power in the poll-bound Telangana, Rao slammed the Congress party as according to him, the state suffered the most during its regime.

This is likely to be the last session of the assembly for the present government as elections are expected to be held at the end of the year.

Rao said, "We ourselves directly declared as a secular party. Both AIMIM and BRS are friendly parties. We will remain together and also in future. We will get good results so that Telangana people or minorities/poor people would benefit."

"I can say with guarantee that we would win 100 per cent seven to eight seats more than we got in the last elections. No one needs to have any doubts about it," he added.

If the rulers are sincere and honest, God and nature will also bless and during the past 10 years in the BRS rule, Telangana is able to generate more hydel power and is selling to Rajasthan on returnable basis, he said.

Hitting out at the Congress and BJP, he said both the parties made innumerable promises during Karnataka Assembly polls.

Quoting media reports, he said the Karnataka government now says the state's financial position is not in a position to support the implemention of some of the poll promises and hence the administration is thinking of "diverting SC/ST funds".

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments that freebies for votes are "Revdi Culture", KCR said the same party promised free half litre milk to every household in Karnataka during the assembly elections held recently.

Slamming the Congress, Rao said, "During the Indian National Congress rule in the united state (before bifurcation), 30,000 to 35,000 lakes vanished. They were subjected to encroachment."

The Congress party says that it would abolish Dharani portal, an Integrated Land Records Management System when it comes to power. "What do you want to do by abolishing Dharani. Are you thinking of bringing middlemen culture and vultures? Dharani is nothing but empowering democracy and empowering the farming community of Telangana," he said.

Narrating the growth of power capacity in Telangana during the BRS rule, Rao said the state will soon achieve the target of 25,000 MW installed power capacity against the existing capacity of 18,756 MW.

KCR alleged that NTPC which was mandated to set up 4,000 MW plant in the state as per the AP Reorganisation Act, has now taken up only 1,600 MW.

He also said Telangana is in number one position when it comes to per capita power consumption and the national average is nowhere near the state.

Rao said the Centre has declared that Telangana is a zero-Fluorosis state. This is because the state government is providing safe drinking water to people.

On agricultural growth in the state, the chief minister said Telangana currently uses 27-28 lakh tonne of urea for farming activity as against seven lakh tonne earlier.

"During the Congress regime paddy production in Telangana was at 6.8 million tonne. Today it crossed 30 million tonne overtaking Punjab . We are aiming to increase the paddy production to four crore (forty million tonne)", he said.

KCR said the state government will soon appoint a Pay Revision Commission (PRC) for employees and would also offer interim relief to them.

Inputs from PTI