Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s praise for former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh Y S Rajasekhar Reddy on the floor of the state assembly on Sunday came as a big surprise to the media covering the session.
Giving a reply on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address, KCR was all praise for YSR for introducing Arogya Sri scheme, aimed at benefitting free medical services to the poor and the needy.
“We do not hesitate to appreciate any good scheme introduced by the previous governments. Arogya Sri introduced by YSR was one such scheme which has benefitted the poor people. We are continuing the scheme with the same spirit,” he said.
His statement was surprising, because KCR never acknowledged the good work done by the previous Congress governments.
He use to allege that the Telangana was completely neglected during the YSR regime in the past and its resources were blatantly exploited.
And he used to say that YSR was the No. 1 enemy for Telangana, as the latter had never allowed any attempt to divide the combined state.
He even pointed out several times that YSR had cautioned the people of Andhra that they would have to take passports to visit Telangana, if the state was bifurcated.
So, KCR praising YSR now has raised many an eyebrow. But there is a strategy behind his move. He is sending enough signals to the people of Andhra that the TRS will be supporting the YSR Congress party in their state.
In the coming days, he will be coming out with more and more such statements praising YSR’s welfare schemes such as free power to farmers and free reimbursement scheme.
He wants to convey to the people of Andhra that whatever little development Telangana had witnessed was due to the vision of YSR.
This is in a bid to counter the claims of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu,during the Telangana assembly elections that he had developed Hyderabad!
