‘Chalo Nalgonda’ draws massive crowd

A large number of people from erstwhile Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar and Khammam districts attended the public meeting of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi here demanding protection of the share of Telangana in Krishna river water

Nalgonda: This was not just another public meeting by a political party. The ‘Chalo Nalgonda’ meeting on Tuesday signalled the resurgence of the political party that fought for Telangana after a setback in the Assembly elections, and saw its leader leading from the front to launch another agitation to fight to protect the State’s rightful share of water from the Krishna River.

A large number of people from erstwhile Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar and Khammam districts attended the public meeting of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi here demanding protection of the share of Telangana in Krishna river water and to stop the Congress government from handing over Krishna Basin projects to the Centre.

The public meeting, which had BRS president and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao addressing the public for the first time after his marathon meetings before the Assembly elections, was also his first as the Leader of Opposition. Dotted with multiple statements that reminded the gathering of his fiery speeches during the Telangana agitation, the speech saw the crowd cheering and responding enthusiastically when Chandrashekhar Rao went all out with his guns blazing on the Congress government.

The crowd, which sat quiet as he turned emotional, recalling the struggles to achieve Telangana, also erupted in vociferous applause when he dared the Congress to ‘come’ and ‘kill’ him. His response to Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, who hails from the district and who had rebuked farmers for complaining about not getting Rythu Bandhu assistance, also drew massive applause, especially when Chandrashekhar Rao said that a slap from a farmer’s battle-hardened chappal would send anyone’s teeth flying.

The meeting, which had almost the entire top brass of the BRS attending, reverberated repeatedly with slogans of ‘Jai KCR’, showing how the party president’s return to the stage after the Assembly elections had in one stroke enthused the entire party cadre, not just in erstwhile Nalgonda, but across the State, which will now witness, in the former Chief Minister’s words, a never-say-die battle for the rights of Telangana and its share of the Krishna River waters.