A latest survey conducted by a national agency for a national newspaper indicating that the popularity graph of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is on the decline seems to have given a lot of confidence to the Congress party in the state.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) spokesman Gudur Narayana Reddy said KCR had started losing his ground which was clearly evident from the recent survey. Odisha CM Naveek Patnaik was on the top followed by the CM of Kerala.
He said CMs of Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, who assumed charge not even a year ago emerged more popular than KCR who completed six years in power.
“The chief minister was confined to Pragathi Bhavan enjoying a lavish lifestyle and taking very little interest in administration, as a result of which the people have started losing faith in him,” he said.
Reddy said the survey revealed that KCR ranked 16th among 31 Chief Ministers in the country in terms of performance-based popularity and scored a mere 54% in the survey. This percentage would've been much lower if the survey is done on local parameters, he said.
Reddy said the survey's findings were very close to reality, if not exact. He said KCR had lost sense of accountability towards people.
"KCR apparently feels that he is not answerable to anyone for anything. He is neither listening to opposition parties nor answering questions from the media,” he pointed out.
The dictatorial attitude got embedded in his character to the extent that he is considering everyone who is questioning his decisions as his personal enemy.
Except for a few selected persons, he barred the entry of ministers, MLAs, MLCs and senior officials in Pragathi Bhavan which consequently resulted in administration coming to a halt.
“He picked deception, cheating and lies as his weapons to stay in power. Now he is surrounded either by sycophants or security personnel," he said.
The Congress leader said KCR should've come up with a progress report on the performance of his government for the last six years. Instead, he said KCR was patting his own and giving himself full marks for an exam which he didn't write.
"KCR is acting both like a candidate and examiner. He is setting his own question paper, conducting exams, playing the role of invigilator and then correcting his own answer sheet. He is giving himself full marks without even writing the answers," he said.