Telangana party chief courts ‘Andhra’ controversy again

“The Andhra Babu is refusing to leave Hyderabad and Telangana, even if he is bodily thrown out,’ KCR, as the TRS chief is known, said during his campaign road show in Adilabad district late Sunday evening.

Targeting Chandrababu Naidu and senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu, he said the two Naidus from Seemandhra, as part of a political conspiracy to ensure the defeat of TRS in the coming elections, had forged an unholy alliance. “Where is the need for an Andhra party in Telangana?” he wondered. KCR’s tirade against the Seemandhra leaders continues even as the Election Commission was looking into a complaint lodged by the TDP against the hate speeches that the TRS leader was allegedly delivering in various parts of Telangana during electioneering.

The TRS chief allegedly referred to both TDP and YSR Congress (YSRC) headed by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy as “Andhra parties,” and asked the people of Telangana to throw them out. The Election Commission has asked the district administration to provide the footage of KCR’s speeches in Karimnagar, Nalgonda and Nizamabad, for further action into the complaint field by TDP general secretary M A Shareef.

According to State Election Commission (SEC) sources who confirmed receiving the complaint, a decision will be taken after the officials run through the footage of KCR’s speeches. “We will initiate action or refer it to the Election Commission of India depending on the seriousness of the offence,” the source said.

The TRS chief also trained his guns on Telangana Congress President Ponnala Lakshmaiah, alleging that when the latter was Irrigation Minister, he had mortgaged the interest of Telangana. “Lakshmaiah now claims that I am after the chief minister’s post in the new state of Telangana. Is it wrong to aspire to form the government, particularly since it was the TRS which waged a battle for 14 years to achieve the long-cherished dream of separate statehood?” he asked.

Several Congress leaders including Lakshmaiah and former APCC president D Srinivas have been lashing out KCR alleging that with Telangana becoming a reality, KCR was showing his true colors. “The turncoat that he is, he is now eyeing the chief minister’s post after promising that he would merge his party with the Congress once Telangana is formed. KCR had also maintained that the TRS was only an outfit meant to lead the separate statehood movement till it achieved its goal,” Srinivas told Khaleej Times in an interview.

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