BRS defeat in Assembly poll is not disastrous, only speed-breaker: KTR

Rama Rao directed his guns at the Congress government, advising it to fulfill its six electoral guarantees within 100 days.

Hyderabad: BRS working president KT Rama Rao termed the party’s defeat in the recent Telangana Assembly election, as a minor setback, but not a huge disaster. He pointed out that the vote-share difference between BRS and Congress was a mere 1.85 percent, with the former losing seven to eight seats by a narrow margin of about 4,000-5,000 votes.

“The defeat of the party in the elections is only a speed-breaker,” the former Minister said, while fielding a volley of questions from the media persons after presenting his white paper titled ‘Sweda Patram’ at Telangana Bhavan here on Sunday.

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He gave a strong counter to the Congress government’s recent claims on the State finances. Admitting that certain minor mistakes proved costly for the party, Rama Rao said there are lessons to be learned from every victory and defeat. He said the party had multiple internal meetings on its performance in recent elections.

“We have to realise where we have gone wrong and take corrective measures,” he said.

He said the BRS should have effectively communicated about its accomplishments to different sections of the population.

“For instance, employees in Telangana are the highest paid but we could not make them aware of the fact. Similarly, we have filled more government vacancies than in any other State,” he said.

He attributed that the delay in salaries to government employees, to the adverse impact of Covid-19 for two years which had a cascading effect on the State finances. He urged the employees to understand the problem.

The BRS working president also felt that the party failed to counter misinformation against it during the election campaign, especially those using social media platforms.

“The youth seemed to have been carried away by the campaign of misinformation by the Congress. We should have reacted immediately,” he said.

Rama Rao directed his guns at the Congress government, advising it to fulfill its six electoral guarantees within 100 days.

“The Congress has already slipped on unemployment assistance. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said in the Assembly that his party had never promised it. People are watching you keenly,” he said.

The former Minister stated that though the Congress was speaking about six guarantees, it had made a total of 142 promises in the election manifesto. He announced that the BRS would form department-wise shadow teams to hold the government accountable.

“Like in other countries, we will also have a shadow Cabinet. Whenever the government flounders, we will take it to the notice of the people,” he said.

Further, Rama Rao said it was up to the Congress whether they use the power in their hands for the welfare of the people or resorts to political vedetta against the BRS.

He declared that the BRS was prepared for any inquiry. He recalled the party itself demanded for an inquiry into all allegations made by the ruling Congress against the BRS leaders.