Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi during a public meeting ahead of the Telangana Assembly election
Credit: PTI Photo
Hyderabad: AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday attacked the ruling BRS in Telangana over unemployment, corruption and price rise in the state and said that the BJP and BRS are cut from the same cloth, as they want to keep holding on to power.
Vadra, who addressed an election rally at Zaheerabad on the last day of campaigning for the assembly polls, spoke about the BRS's 'broken promises', including farm loan waivers.
"The promises made to you were broken one after another. All of you agitated for Telangana. Telangana was formed due to the sacrifices of youth, farmers and sisters (women)," she said, implying that the BRS government did not do enough for the people.
In contrast, the work done in Congress-ruled states, including Karnataka and Rajasthan, she said, gives her a sense of pride when she goes to those states.
She said it is her hope that one day she would be able to say in Telangana too that the Congress has fulfilled the people's dreams. 'Today, the central government and the state government in Telangana, both are in cahoots. Both are same type of governments,' she said.
'They have one purpose: to stay in power somehow. Someone talks about religion, someone does corruption. (They want to) have power in their hands and collect money by staying in power,' she alleged.
The BJP is the richest party in the country today and the BRS is the richest party in Telangana, she charged.
'I want to ask you, where did they get this money from? This happened in 10 years. This is all your money. This is that money with which your loan should have been waived. This is that money which should have gone into the pension of government employees,' she told the voters.
Congress runs such governments whereby the people's money goes back into their pockets, she said.
Speaking of the difficulties faced by the Centre's policies such as the note ban and the manner in which GST is being implemented, she said small businessmen, women, farmers and others were left high and dry, particularly after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The present NDA and BRS regimes at the centre and state are responsible, she said.
'Narendra Modi ji purchased two aircraft with Rs 16,000 crore. Today, a farmer earns just 27 rupees a day,' she said.
She further slammed the BJP-led NDA government for handing over ports and airports to big companies in the country and waiving thousands of crores of rupees in corporate loans, especially for a particular business group.
Speaking of political ties, she said that the BRS supports BJP in Parliament, and AIMIM helps BRS in Telangana, pointing out that the Majlis party president Asaduddin Owaisi attacks Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
AIMIM fights 40-50 seats in other states but is contesting from only nine seats in Telangana, she pointed out, indicating a tacit understanding between the BRS and that party.