Gram panchayat polls pointer to growing public discontent against Congress, says BRS

BRS leader Srinivas Goud said gram panchayat poll results reflect public dissatisfaction with the Congress government in Telangana, blamed the cut in BC reservations, and expressed confidence that the BRS would return to power and perform well in upcoming local body polls

Hyderabad: BRS leader and former Minister V Srinivas Goud stated on Wednesday that the results of the gram panchayat polls were a pointer to widespread public discontent against the ruling Congress government in Telangana and exuded confidence that the BRS would fare well in the upcoming local body polls too.

Interacting with newly elected sarpanches backed by the BRS from Mahabubnagar and Hanwada mandals at a meeting held at the party camp office in Mahabubnagar on Wednesday, he said the Congress administration had failed on multiple fronts. He alleged that the Congress government hastily conducted local body elections by reducing Backward Classes (BC) reservations from 24% to 17% in a bid to secure Rs 3,500 crore in funds from the Central Finance Commission.

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Goud emphasised that 70% of these funds are meant to go directly to gram panchayats and cannot be withheld by MLAs or leaders. He also announced that the BRS would establish a legal cell to assist sarpanches. Question how the urea distribution through an ‘app’ would help streamline the distribution when the availability of stocks at the shop level is in question.

He predicted that the Congress regime would last only another two years, asserting that a government led by former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao would return to power. He urged BRS workers to highlight the developmental achievements under previous BRS administration and expose the Congress government’s failures to the public. “You have won for five years. The second half of the sarpanches’ term would witness development works under our government,” he told the sarpanches.