Cong raises South Telangana bogey

Chinna Reddy, Aruna lead Cong charge to put TRS on back foot

Hyderabad: T Congress party, which is left with no issue to take on the TRS, is raising the bogey of north-south divide in Telangana. TRS leadership has been beating the opposition hollow on farm loan wavier and power crisis issues on all forums.

T Congress has come up with an ace on Thursday by using the same sentimental factor, which the TRS has been using. While the entire Telangana was ignored in the undivided state, the T Congress has made a point that south Telangana was ignored in the newly-carved state by the TRS. This strategy has put the ruling party on a back foot for the same divide existed during the agitation period as well.

G Chinna Reddy, Congress legislator representing Wanaparthy from south Telangana, alleged during the Question Hour that the government was deliberately neglecting the south region. “I failed to understand the justification of the government to name the scheme to revive tanks as Mission Kakatiya,” he said. Kakatiyas had ruled only north Telangana. The south Telangana was ruled by dynasties and Samsthanams of Wanaparthy and Gadwal but the government does not mention them. “It looks like the government was imposing north Telangana culture on to the south region,” he said.

The Congress leader explained the disparity between the two state festivals. Bathukamma, which is a festival of north Telangana, was celebrated on a grandscale. On the contrary, Bonalu, festival of south Telangana, was not celebrated like Bathukamma, he said.

In fact, the north and south Telagana divide was first raised by another south Telangana legislator D K Aruna, representing Gadwal. Recently she had accused Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of neglecting south Telangana. She said that people of south Telangana would fight against the discrimination. South Telangana, which consists of five districts, is a stronghold of the Congress party. Even in the post bifurcation scenario it won 16 assembly seats while TRS, which had swept polls in north, had to remain content with 19 in south. The TDP-BJP combine too did well by winning 18 seats.

Realising that it was facing a tricky situation, the government was non-committal in its reply.

Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao, who replied to Chinna Reddy, said that Mission Kakatiya was named because of the ‘Kakatiya Toranam’, which was part of the state emblem, reflects T culture.

The government had taken the inspiration from Kaktiyas who constructed tanks and decided to revive the water bodies, he explained.