Till the other day, the people of Andhra Pradesh had some kind of fascination for Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, because of his oratorical skills and punch dialogues in typical Telangana dialect.
But KCR never had an opportunity to address any public meeting in Andhra. So, they did not get a chance to listen to his speeches directly.
When Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president and present chief minister A Revanth Reddy addressed a big rally in Visakhapatnam in support of agitating steel plant workers, it was a roaring success, as there was a tremendous response from the people for his speech.
Laced with lot of punch dialogues, Revanth made indirect references to Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, saying both were more interested in grabbing power, than questioning the Centre for doing injustice to the state.
He said even after 10 years of the bifurcation of combined Andhra Pradesh, the rulers could not complete the Polavaram project and develop a capital city, only because they had no guts to question the Centre, but mortgaged their self-respect with Delhi.
“They have lost their ability to question; they are only prostrating before Modi. BJP in Andhra comprises – Babu, Jagan and Pawan Kalyan. They are the strength of Modi in the state. Every vote for any of these parties will ultimately benefit the BJP,” Revanth Reddy said.
He regretted that the ruling YSRCP and the opposition TDP remained helpless when the Narendra Modi government was trying to privatise the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, which was established for which 32 people had sacrificed their lives.
“Though we are now two separate Telugu states, we can still fight together against the injustice meted out to the Telugu people,” he said.
He said the people of the two Telugu states were still united though separated geographically.
“In Mahabharata, Kauravas and Pandavas used to quarrel with each other, but if anyone came against their interests, they formed into a team of 105 and fought for their rights,” he pointed out.
If we fight together, Delhi sultans, jagirdars and rulers will also have to surrender. In the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, noted leaders like Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, PV Narasimha Rao, NT Rama Rao, YS Rajasekhar Reddy, Jaipal Reddy and Venkaiah Naidu fought for the state interests and influenced the national politics. Now, no leaders are questioning the centre to protect the state interests and instead bow down their heads before the centre.
Revanth appealed to the people to elect five MPs and 25 MLAs from the Congress and give Congress an opportunity to be represented in the Legislative Assembly.