Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao virtually kick-started his election campaign on Friday within a day of dissolving the state assembly, with a blistering attack on the Congress party, at his first election meeting held at Husnabad in Siddipet district.
While asking the people to bless him with fresh mandate so as to continue the progress the Telangana state had achieved in the last four years of his rule, KCR sought to whip up passions among the people by raising the Telangana self-respect bogey.
He, however, did not utter a single word against the BJP or NDA government during his 30-minute speech.
KCR alleged that India had been lagging behind several countries like China, Singapore, Korea and Japan in several fields during the 50-odd years of Congress rule.
It had failed to lay proper roads, construct irrigation projects, expand railway and road network to their full potential.
“The Congress alone is responsible for farmers’ suicides, poor power supply in villages, lack of irrigation schemes in several parts of the country and collapsing of economy,” he alleged.
He said the demand for separate Telangana state would not have arisen had the successive Congress governments not neglected the region over the years.
“The TRS was born out of this anguish among the people towards the Congress rulers who had neglected Telangana in various fields including education and employment,” he said.
KCR claimed that his government had sacrificed nine months of its term by dissolving the assembly, only to sustain the unhindered progress the state had witnessed in the last four years.
“When the Congress leaders were making false and baseless allegations against my government, I challenged them that let us go to the people and seek their verdict afresh. When I dissolved the assembly yesterday. They got panicky and started running to Delhi for directions,” he said.
