Youth Congress activists hung an effigy of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) in Telangana’s Jangaon, on Thursday, January 8, protesting his controversial remarks calling for Rahul Gandhi’s “execution,” with the BRS leader hitting back and questioning why Congress leaders are not protesting against Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy instead.
The demonstration, led by district Youth Congress president Bonasi Kranti Kumar, saw party workers perform a milk abhishekam (a ritualistic pouring of milk) on the portraits of Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. Youth Congress leaders lashed out at KTR, saying he lacked the stature to speak against Rahul Gandhi, having entered politics through his father K Chandrasekhar Rao’s influence.
The protest came in response to KTR’s recent statements where he said Rahul Gandhi and Revanth Reddy “should be hanged many times” for deceiving Telangana’s people, specifically citing unfulfilled promises such as 2 lakh jobs, farm loan waivers in Warangal and 42 per cent reservation for backward classes in Kamareddy.
Refusing to back down, KTR mounted a sharp counterattack against the Congress, accusing party leaders of hypocrisy for criticising his remarks while ignoring similar and harsher comments their own Chief Minister had made earlier.
Speaking to party cadres at Telangana Bhavan, KTR reminded Congress MLAs and ministers that the Chief Minister himself had called Rahul Gandhi “Mudda Pappu (plain dal).” He also recalled how Revanth Reddy had described Sonia Gandhi as a “sacrificial goddess who took the lives of a thousand people and killed Telangana’s children.”
“Rahul Gandhi was called ‘Mudda Pappu’ by Revanth Reddy himself. I only repeated what your own Chief Minister said,” KTR asserted. “Why are you speaking against us while protecting the man who abused the Gandhi family? If you have any political courage, question Revanth Reddy first,” the BRS working president said.
KTR also used the occasion to rally party workers ahead of expected Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections. He highlighted that the BRS government had executed nearly Rs 9,700 crore worth of developmental works in Hyderabad, urging cadres to take this message to every division and voter.The BRS leader criticised the Congress government’s demolition of homes in Serlingampally under the HYDRAA project, calling it anti-poor. He also took a swipe at Serlingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi, claiming the legislator had defected to Congress only to protect his land interests.
