Telangana Rashtra Samithi working president and state industries and IT minister K T Rama Rao has virtually put his foot in his mouth by making unwarranted comments on the bad conditions in the “neighbouring state,” that drew flak from the ruling YSR Congress party in Andhra Pradesh.
Right from advisor to chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, senior ministers Botsa Satyanarayana and Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, junior ministers Gudivada Amarnath and R K Roja to party legislators like Malladi Vishnu – every YSRC leader took KTR to task for talking bad about Andhra Pradesh.
And the YSRC social media activists did not lose much time in resorting to heavy trolling of KTR as never before. They virtually made mincemeat of his image. Some of them even described him as a stooge of TDP.
Obviously, KTR’s comments gave the much needed fodder for the Yellow Media, which carried debates on them to run down the Jagan government.
On Saturday, too, it was a front page news for the pro-TDP media to project Jagan in bad light.
It is learnt KTR made these comments under the influence of his close friends among Rajus of West Godavari, who are said to be angry with Jagan due to Raghurama Raju episode.
“KTR has a lot of friends in Bhimavaram and there is a talk that he has benami properties over there. Maybe, the friend KTR was referring to as the one who went to Andhra for Sankranti festival and commented on bad roads is also a Raju,” a source said.
It is learnt KTR got a dressing down from his father, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for his unnecessary comments.
The feedback KCR got from the intelligence department was that KTR’s comments made more damage than good to the party.
“Instead of fetching the party any mileage for highlighting the development in Telangana, his comments hurt the sentiments of Andhra people in Telangana. Needless to say, the TRS might lose their votes in the next elections,” an analyst said.
After being pulled up by his father, KTR posted a tweet late in the night expressing regrets for his inadvertent comment.
“It appears that an innocuous comment that I had made at a meeting earlier today may have caused some unintentional pain to my friends in AP I enjoy a great brotherly equation with AP CM Jagan Garu & wish that the state prospers under his leadership,” he tweeted.
Hope this will put an end to the controversy, but the damage has already been done!