Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s statement a couple of days ago that he would resign from his chief minister post if the Bharatiya Janata Party could prove that the old age pension scheme was being funded by the Centre, took everybody by surprise.
While inaugurating the Rythu Vedika, KCR asserted that only 1.8% of the total expenditure for pensions was borne by the Central government and the remaining 98.2% was being given by the state government.
“While the state government is spending Rs 11,000 crore on pensions, the Centre is giving only Rs 105 crore,” he said.
He challenged that if the BJP leaders proved him wrong, he would quit the CM’s post.
“If you are people of character and if you are men, accept my challenge and prove me wrong. I will resign, if you can prove that the figures quoted by me are wrong. It is a shame that the BJP leaders are spreading lies," KCR thundered.
Generally, KCR doesn’t throw such a challenge to the opposition. He will take the opposition to task, but will never talk about resigning from the post. So, it was definitely surprising for everybody.
“May be KCR really has plans to quit the chief minister’s post and hand over the reins to his son K T Rama Rao after Dubbak by-elections and subsequent elections to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation,” said senior actress-turned-politician and former MP Vijayashanti.
She said throwing the blame on the BJP, the chief minister was offering to resign.
“It clearly shows what is going to happen in the coming days in the TRS. Even when Union home minister Amit Shah accused the TRS government of misusing central funds, KCR did not talk about his resignation. Why did he raise this subject now?” she asked.
