Congress used Dalits as vote bank, says Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao

Kamareddy (Telangana), October 30 : Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) President, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) while addressing a public meeting in Jukkal on Monday said that Congress has never thought about the welfare of Dalits but just used them as a vote bank.
"Congress has used Dalits as a vote bank. They have never thought about Dalits. However, the BRS government brought Dalit Bandhu," said KCR.
Dalit Bandhu Scheme is a program that was launched by the government of Telangana in 2021. The scheme is intended to provide financial assistance to families belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.
The Telangana CM, while addressing the public meeting ahead of the Telangana assembly elections, also appealed to the people to not vote in haste as he claimed the vote to be a 'Brahamastra' in democracy.
"After the formation of Telangana, the third assembly elections are happening now and multiple parties come during the elections and tell multiple things but think before you vote and do not vote in haste as vote is a Brahmastra in a democracy," said KCR.
He further reminded people of the situation of Telangana before its formation as compared to its situation at present, emphasizing that the vote, if used wisely can change our destiny.
"There was no electricity, no fresh water or drinking water and the people used to migrate to far-off places. Many farmers committed suicides because they could not pay their loans or dig bores. Even I could not get water until I dug 27 bores in my farmland. We have faced many such hardships," said the Telangana CM.
"After the formation of Telangana, we restored multiple lakes, built check dams and also brought water through projects. Around 100 years back, Nizam Sagar was built by Nizam and there was plenty of water back then but later during the coalition governments, it dried up and by seeing all of this only we had started the Telangana movement," he added.
KCR during his speech also alleged that Congress cheated them in 2004 with the promise of Telangana. He highlighted that the state could have been more developed if it had been given in 2004.
KCR further said, "In Karnataka, they (Congress) promised that the electricity will be provided for 24 hours but it is being provided only for 5 hours and the farmers are also protesting over there."
Telangana will poll for the Assembly on November 30 and the counting of votes, along with those of four other poll-bound states, on December 3.
The southern state is set to witness an intriguing triangular contest between the BRS, Congress, and BJP.
In the previous Assembly elections in 2018, the BRS won 88 of the 119 seats, hogging 47.4 per cent of the total vote share. The Congress finished a distant second with 19 seats and a vote share of 28.7 per cent.