Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has appealed to the electors of the Presidential election, scheduled to be held on July 18, to vote as per their conscience after weighing the two candidates in the fray, and not based on their political affiliation.
Addressing a meeting of TRS MPs, MLAs, MLCs, its State executive committee members and other senior leaders of the party convened in support of Yashwant Sinha, the candidate fielded by the Opposition, here on Saturday, the Telangana Chief Minister said Mr. Sinha’s candidature outweighs that of his rival’s as he was a towering personality.
“He (Mr. Sinha) is an honest politician and an able administrator who handled the key portfolios of finance and external affairs in the Union Cabinet in the A.B. Vajpayee Government,” Mr. Rao said.
In an appeal to all Parliamentarians in the country, the TRS chief said that there was a democratic practice in the country of voting as per conscience on some occasions and it was done during the Presidential election, when V.V. Giri contested it and that there was such a need again now.
He wished Mr. Sinha won the election, adding that it would boost the country’s image and change the fortunes of the poor.
“Whatever is happening and what is being done in the country are wrong. There is a gross misuse of constitutional bodies and enforcement agencies by the present Union Government. The BJP-led NDA government is killing democracy and federal structures in the country,” said Mr. Rao.
Referring to the comments of “a Union Minister from Hyderabad”, Mr. Rao said that the former had said that BJP could topple the Government in Telangana as they did it in Maharashtra earlier this week.
“We are waiting for it, so that we can become free and topple their (BJP) government in Delhi so that people are saved from the hate and divisive rule,” Mr. Rao said and pointed out that the BJP had ‘toppled governments in nine States in its eight-year rule’ so far.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed on all counts and height of all is his decisions during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic when millions of people were forced to walk back to their native places hundreds of kilometres away with the sudden imposition of lockdown. The credit of washing away of hundreds of bodies of COVID-19 victims will also go to Mr. Modi,” the Chief Minister said.
Directly referring to recent developments in Sri Lanka, the TRS president said that Mr. Modi was acting like a ‘salesman for his corporate friends and not as the Prime Minister of the country’
Mr. Rao said that the chief of Sri Lankan electricity board had deposed before a parliamentary panel of that country that they were forced by a neighbouring country to award a contract of power generation to a particular company.
Mr. Rao requested Mr. Modi to give clear the air on all such issues including the imposition of 10% imported coal rule for power generation, highest-ever unemployment rate, sale of PSUs and others during his public meeting in Hyderabad on Sunday.
