25 BRS MLAs ready to join Congress, claims Uttam

Hyderabad: Emphasising that people are no longer ready to trust the BRS and rejected the party in Assembly polls, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy claimed that 25 MLAs are in touch with Congress and as they have lost hope in the pink party and would join Congress soon. Speaking to media persons at Gandhi Bhavan along with Ministers Ponnam Prabhakar and Jupally Krishna Rao, Uttam claimed that about 25 BRS MLAs are raring to jump the ship and join the Congress any time soon. Some nine MLAs will be joining after the Lok Sabha polls. Uttam Kumar Reddy stated that BRS would cease to exist after the Lok Sabha elections.

“KCR’s tactics would no longer work as people have understood his tricks and rejected his arrogance. “They reduced the BRS from 104 MLAs to 39. About 25 of them are now willing to join the Congress party,” he added.

Uttam strongly condemned the use of “filthy, foul, and unparliamentary language” by KCR against Congress leaders during a press meet at Sircilla. He added that KCR speaking out of political nervousness, depression, and frustration. He said KCR’s slurs against Congress leaders were highly condemnable, labelling him as a contractors’ broker and a joker.

The Irrigation Minister held KCR responsible for the present drought conditions in Telangana and added that the former CM shamelessly attempting to defame the Congress government to cover up his mistakes.

He mentioned that KCR had decimated the irrigation department and is now trying to shift blame onto others. The Congress government inherited drought conditions due to mismanagement by the previous BRS regime. Despite adverse conditions, they are striving to provide 24-hour power supply to all sectors and properly regulate drinking water supply. He mentioned that the government was endeavouring to maximise agricultural output from the available water.

He stated that KCR is brazely claimed that water was released to Suryapet due to his visit. However, he clarified that water was being released as per the schedule and not due to KCR or anyone’s visit. He highlighted that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka, and other ministers and leaders are working as a team to overcome the crisis. “We review the situation every week, and everyone is sincerely working to overcome the challenges,” he added.

Debunking the notion that Kaleshwaram’s waters could have helped overcome the issue to some extent had it been operational, Uttam clarified that owing to damage caused to Medigadda barrage it was NDSA which stalled usage of the facility for now.

The Irrigation Minister criticised KCR for redesigning the Pranahita Chevella Project initiated by the previous Congress regime to irrigate 16 lakh acres of land at the cost of Rs 38,500 crores by constructing the main barrage at Tummidi Hatti. Initially, after winning the 2014 elections, KCR demanded national project status for the Pranahita Chevella Project.

However, he alleged that KCR was afraid Congress would get full credit for the project, which could have permanently solved the drought problem in the region. He accused ‘Commission Rao’ (KCR) of redesigning everything as the Kaleshwaram Project, escalating the cost to over Rs 1.20 lakh crore. Despite spending over Rs 94,000 crore, the project could generate a new ayacut of only 90,000 crore. He criticised Kaleshwaram for its failure in all aspects, such as design, construction, operations, and maintenance.

Ministers Ponnam Prabhakar and Jupalli Krishna Rao criticised KCR for targeting the Congress government, emphasising that the Congress came to power only four months ago, while BRS had been in power for ten years.