Minister Satyavati Rathod vows to walk barefoot till TRS retains power

Rathod said she took the decision not to wear footwear till Chandrashekhar Rao becomes Chief Minister for the third time as she was moved by his decision to enhance ST reservations from 6 percent to 10 percent in the State.

Hyderabad: Minister for Women and Child Welfare Satyavati Rathod has taken a vow to walk barefoot till Chief Minister and TRS (now BRS) supremo K Chandrashekhar Rao is sworn in as the Chief Minister for the third consecutive time.

The Minister has been walking barefoot since the Chief Minister enhanced reservations to 10 percent for Scheduled Tribes (STs) in education and employment during a public meeting at the NTR stadium here on September 17. Interestingly, neither the Chief Minister nor any of her Cabinet colleagues were aware of her vow. It was during her campaign in the Munugode assembly constituency on Friday that people started noticing that she was walking barefoot.

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“I did not want anyone to know about my vow. This is my personal decision. I am doing this as the people of Telangana need Chandrashekhar Rao to continue as Chief Minister. Only under his leadership, weaker sections and poor will get justice. Hence I have undertaken a diksha so that he wins the 2023 assembly poll,” she said.

Rathod said she took the decision not to wear footwear till Chandrashekhar Rao becomes Chief Minister for the third time as she was moved by his decision to enhance ST reservations from 6 percent to 10 percent in the State. “I wanted to do something in my personal capacity for the Chief Minister. Hence, I decided to take diksha to make him CM again,” she said.

She recalled that though she lost in the 2014 Assembly polls, the Chief Minister not only made her MLC, but also included her in the Cabinet.

“In politics, no one cares for a leader after losing elections. But the Chief Minister made a tribal leader like me an MLC and then a Minister too. I will ever be grateful to him. This is the only way I could repay him for his care and gesture,” she said.