Vote for Car to stop the bulldozers, KTR tells Jubilee Hills voters

At a roadshow in Somajiguda, BRS leader KT Rama Rao urged voters to back “development over chaos” in the Jubilee Hills bypoll, attacking Chief Minister Revanth Reddy over unfulfilled promises, withheld student fee dues, and alleged bias in HYDRAA demolitions

Hyderabad: Calling the Jubilee Hills bypoll a crucial one for the future of Telangana, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Tuesday urged voters to deliver a resounding verdict on November 11 for the battle between “two years of chaos” and “10 years of welfare and development”.

Speaking at a well-attended roadshow in Somajiguda, he said victory was certain for the BRS, predicting a repeat of the 2023 Assembly elections when Hyderabad voters overwhelmingly rejected Congress in a “total denial mode”.

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“The scale of the majority is the only question left,” he said, describing the city of Hyderabad as the “mother of all” for its embrace of people from across India. Comparing the pre-2014 era of scarcity with the transformative decade under former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, he recalled protests led by Congress leader P Janardhan Reddy over chronic water shortages and power outages and credited Chandrashekhar Rao’s administration with swift resolutions.

“Within one year of 2014, power issues were history. Generators and inverters vanished from homes and industries got uninterrupted supply,” he said, highlighting policies that fuelled the economic boom, including the Industrial Policy, which drew massive investments and swelled the IT workforce from three lakh to 10 lakh employees. “This growth cascades into real estate and beyond. Hyderabad became a fortune-maker for all,” he said, comparing that era to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s 23-month tenure, which was marked by unfulfilled promises.

Dubbing the government a “rowdy darbar” rather than a “sarkar“, Rama Rao played videos on giant screens showing Revanth Reddy’s promises, the Congress’ “six guarantees” and the 100-day implementation pledge, now gathering dust. Key lapses included promises like Rs 2,500 every month for women, Rs 4,000 pensions, and one tola gold as part of the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme, all of which remained undelivered.

He also slammed Revanth Reddy for deliberately withholding fee reimbursement dues worth over Rs 10,000 crore, thereby depriving lakhs of poor and middle-class students of their right to higher education. Charging the Congress government with hatching a conspiracy to weaken Telangana’s educated youth and ruin the dreams of thousands of families dependent on this vital welfare scheme, Rama Rao said the Revanth Reddy government, instead of releasing the pending fee reimbursement dues, was intimidating private colleges and educational institutions that were struggling to survive.

“By not clearing the dues, the Chief Minister is driving Dalit, Adivasi, Bahujan and poor upper-caste students away from education. This is not mere negligence. It is a deliberate plot to crush the hopes of the underprivileged,” he said, asking how a Chief Minister who could not even pay students’ fees would possibly offer to the people of Jubilee Hills.

He recalled that the fee reimbursement scheme, which was introduced to ensure that no student was deprived of education due to poverty, was now crippled under Revanth Reddy’s rule. “Instead of strengthening the system, he is threatening institutions and creating fear,” he said, also accusing Revanth Reddy of hypocrisy, evident from the Chief Minister’s warning to employees of salary cuts for neglecting aged parents while ignoring retirees’ benefits. “Is this not the responsibility of the government?” he asked.

Blatant bias

Drawing the attention of the crowd to videos showing poor families wailing after being dragged from homes razed to the ground by HYDRAA, while the powerful, like Revanth Reddy’s brother in Durgam Cheruvu, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, and Patnam Mahender Reddy, escaped the bulldozers, he said it was a battle royale between the ‘Car’ and the ‘Bulldozer’.

“If you want the bulldozers away, ensure Maganti Sunitha’s victory. Only a Car can ward off the menace of a bulldozer,” he stated.

Referring to Hyderabad’s historically low voter turnout, Rama Rao also raised alarms over the potential threat of voting by impersonation by the Congress. He urged the people to ensure their participation in voting without letting others cast their votes.

As the electronic screens displayed the model ballot paper for the Jubilee Hills constituency, he reminded the voters: “Teen number pe car, baaki sab bekaar.”