Telangana | Congress, CM Revanth had no role in state formation, says former BRS minister

Former BRS minister T Harish Rao has slammed the Congress and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for taking credit for the formation of Telangana.

Talking to reporters in Sangareddy on Wednesday, Harish Rao said the Congress was trying to grab all the credit for the formation of the state. However, the people were well aware of the fact as to how former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) led the movement from the front for 14 years. More than 1,200 people had laid down their lives during this period.

The state of Telangana would not have been realised had KCR not launched his historic hunger strike, Harish Rao said, adding that the delay in formation of the state had cost the lives of many people during the 1969 movement and as well as the second phase of the movement when the Congress was in power.

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Recalling how KCR struggled to force the Congress government to declare the formation of the state, he pointed out that Revanth Reddy played no role in the second phase of the movement. “Revanth was with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which strongly opposed the formation of Telangana,” he alleged.

Earlier, Harish Rao garlanded the statue of Telangana Thalli on the premises of the Sangareddy collectorate. He said lakhs of Telangana Thalli idols were installed across Telangana even on the premises of government offices during the last 20 years. “Will Revanth Reddy remove all these statues,” he asked amid a controversy triggered by unveiling of a new Telangana Thalli idol by the chief minister at the state secretariat recently.

Subsequently, the BRS had staged a protest against the move, contending that the new design of Telangana Thalli differs from the one used by the regional party.