Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy has said the highest number of seats the Bharatiya Janata Party would get in the parliament elections was 240 but refused to hazard any guess about the tally of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance
“Why talk about NDA at all? Because no one knows who will remain and who will quit the alliance,” he told media persons in an informal chat on the evening of June 1, as polls ended and exit poll numbers started coming in.
He displayed a printout of the latest post on X by BJP president J.P. Nadda, giving the party four or five seats in Telangana, as against repeated claims of its leaders that the BJP would touch the double digit mark. Reddy highlighted that the post was from the official handle of the BJP. On the other hand, he said, the Congress would get a minimum of 10 and maximum of 12 seats in Telangana.
“Rahul Gandhi is the undisputed leader of INDIA bloc who is set to become the next prime minister,” Reddy added.
Reddy expressed confidence that four ministers from Telangana would be inducted into Gandhi’s cabinet. He said he too would strive to assign important portfolios to the ministers in a bid to push the development agenda of the state government.
He discussed a range of issues, tracing their origin to the faulty policies of the previous Bharat Rashtra Samiti government. One of them was an amount of Rs 40,000 crore left to pay liquor suppliers. The Congress government has allowed the pendency to continue and, instead, prioritised payments to meet investment support to agriculture and salaries of government staff, Reddy said.
Reddy also expressed his strong resolve to act tough on phone tapping charges against the BRS government. “Nobody can stop me from taking action on wrong deeds,” he said. He also asked why the BJP which wanted a Central Bureau of Investigation probe did not trust the police of Telangana.
Asked why the government put on hold its decision to withdraw images of Charminar and the famous arch of Kakatiya dynasty in it’s emblem, he said the government was firm on introducing new symbols. The changes would be made after a thorough debate in the assembly, he added. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen at whose behest the Charminar was included in the present emblem would be taken into confidence. At the same time, the image of Telangana martyrs memorial would figure in the new emblem, he added.
He also challenged the BRS to a forensic audit of power interruptions and shutdowns in the state, amidst claims by the party that the power situation had deteriorated now, under the Congress. He offered to make public log books on supply at all sub-stations in the state to verify if there was anything wrong. He blamed the BRS leaders for instigating power staff to “do mischief” to earn a bad name for his government.
