Senior BRS leader Harish Rao rips into Revanth Reddy’s ‘frustrated rants’

BRS leader T Harish Rao launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, branding his recent remarks as a "frustrated rant" and accusing the Congress government of policy failures, broken promises and covert ties with the BJP. He dismissed Congress’s investment claims, highlighted discrepancies in GST growth, and criticised the government’s handling of floods and student fee dues.

Hyderabad: Branding the outbursts of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy during his latest media interaction as sheer ‘frustrated rant’, senior BRS leader and MLA T. Harish Rao, on Saturday said the Congress government was all about policy failures, broken promises and covert BJP ties.

Addressing a news conference at Telangana Bhavan, he challenged the Chief Minister to an open debate on fee reimbursement and the six guarantees of the ruling party.

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Defending the BRS’s decade-long legacy of development, he said Revanth Reddy’s rule had failed to achieve results even after two years. The Chief Minister was instead begging voters to judge based on Congress’s 2004-2014 tenure and not on his present achievements.

He recalled that Revanth Reddy had once lambasted the same 2004- 2014 Congress rule as a corrupt and water-scarce regime. He also recalled Revanth Reddy’s barbs calling Congress’s Jal Yagnam a “Dhana Yagnam”. Revanth Reddy had accused the same Congress rule of Rs 1 lakh crore scams under quid pro quo.

He even criticised the Congress regime before bifurcation of the State for scarcity conditions stating that even his father’s funeral lacked water for rituals due to power outages.

Highlighting BRS milestones, Harish Rao recalled the 24-hour free power scheme for farmers introduced by K. Chandrashekhar Rao, contrasting it with Congress party’s “3-hour morning and evening” supply under Kiran Kumar Reddy.

On irrigation, he defended the Kaleshwaram project, listing its components, from Medigadda Barrage to Mallanna Sagar reservoir.

“Did they all collapse?,” he asked, pointing out that farmers’ fields were thriving with Godavari water, and were not barren. He cited 2023 paddy production at 2.73 crore tonnes, crediting Mission Kakatiya’s desilting and completed projects.

Dismissing Reddy’s claims of achieving Rs 3 lakh crore investments giving boost to the industrial sector, Rao pointed to official TS iPASS data acknowledging investments to the tune of only Rs 13,700 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 6,472 crore in 2025-26.

“Where is the Rs 3 lakh crore?” he asked.

Revenue growth under BRS averaged 15% (state taxes), with GST surging 33% in September 2023, topping national charts. Now, under Congress, GST growth was a dismal 1% (September 2024) and 5% (CAG report, September 2025), ranking Telangana last.

Per capita income soared to Rs 3.47 lakh, placing the State among India’s top performers during the BRS regime. From Rs 62,000 crore revenue in 2014, BRS handed over Rs 2.3 lakh crore in 2023.

On the floods, Rao said Congress neglect, failing to desilt nalas, were causing inundations in bastis like those in MLA Talasani Srinivas Yadav’s constituency.

“Hyderabad’s STPs and flood plans by BRS prevented the worse. But now, it’s Revanth Reddy’s fault,” he said.

The Secretariat, built in Ambedkar’s spirit as Telangana’s pride, was shunned by Revanth Reddy over its name, Rao alleged.

On Rs 8,000 crore pending for SC,ST and BC minority students as fee reimbursement, Harish Rao dared Reddy to an open debate.

“BRS cleared Rs 2,508 crore even during COVID. You’ve paid nothing in two years,” he said, also questioning raids targeting private colleges that were demanding the dues to be cleared. He sought a white paper also on the bills cleared for contractors ahead of the Haryana, Maharashtra and Bihar polls, questioning priorities.

Rao alleged BJP ties, citing undisclosed ED raids on Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and IT searches at Bhatti Vikramarka’s Delhi and Gurgaon homes over Bihar election funds.

Questioning as to why there was no ED probe on Revanth Reddy’s note-for-votes case, he pointed out the propriety in the distribution of sarees in Jubilee Hills as part of the Venkateswara Swamy Kalyanam.