HYDERABAD: Chief minister A Revanth Reddy Tuesday invoked regional pride as he targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, referring to them as "Delhi Sultans". The Lok Sabha election was a contest between "Telangana pride and Delhi Sultans", between "Telangana self-respect and Gujarat big brothers", he said while addressing a public meeting in Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency.
The TPCC chief invoked Telangana's history of resistance, saying: "Let us show our "Telangana powrusham (pride)", with which we fought and defeated the Nizams and Razakars, and also achieved Telangana state. Let us unite to defeat BJP and protect reservations, secularism, democracy and the constitution," he said, and warned that PM Modi would carry out a surgical strike on reservations for dalits, adivasis and weaker sections.
Challenging BJP, Revanth said, "Let them bring the entire Gujarat and army from the borders. We are not going to get scared." He claimed BJP tried to intimidate him by sending Delhi Police because he had exposed their plans to eliminate reservations for SC, ST, and OBC communities.
Modi disrespected Hindu tradition & formation of Telangana, says CM He accused PM Modi and the BJP of disrespecting Hindu traditions by distributing 'akshintalu' (sacred rice) 15 days prior to the marriage of Lord Rama at the Ayodhya Ram Mandir. He questioned whether such actions were in line with Vedic practices and criticised the BJP for using religion for political gains.
The CM compared Amit Shah to former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao alluding that Shah's actions were similar to KCR's previous attempts to intimidate him.
He criticised Modi for allegedly disrespecting the formation of Telangana state in Parliament and accused the Modi govt of failing to keep the promises made to Telangana in the State Reorganisation Act. Revanth called on voters to choose Congress to bring a secular govt and elect Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister.
Revanth also accused KCR of forming a secret alliance with BJP, citing the former CM's comments about a potential hung Lok Sabha. "There is no entry for KCR in the INDIA bloc, which means he will join the BJP-led NDA alliance. BRS and BJP are two sides of the same coin. The people of Telangana defeated KCR in Nov 2023 assembly elections. That was a semi-final. Now, in the finals, they will defeat Modi and bring Congress to power at the Centre," he said at a public meeting in Warangal.
During a public meeting in Karimnagar, Revanth presented a cut-out of a 'donkey egg', saying that the BJP-led NDA govt had given nothing to Telangana over the past decade.