Vikramarka represents Madhira, a community reserved for SCs, in Khammam district. He won from this seat in 2009, 2014 and 2018. He also served as the deputy speaker of Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly from 2011 to 2014.
As he travelled in his campaign vehicle from village to village in Madhira, he took out some time and told News18 how BRS and BJP are two sides of the same coin. He added that the Congress was not surprised when Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed in a public meeting that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao wanted to be part of NDA.
Edited Excerpts:
In one of his meetings in Telangana, the PM had revealed that KCR had approached him with a plea to join NDA. What would you say about that?
We have been saying this for a long time. BJP and BRS are one and the same. They are the two sides of one coin. Voting for KCR is like voting for BJP. If you vote for KCR here, he goes to Delhi and votes for the BJP in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. PM Modi’s statement proved that.
Some reports say that there is a Congress wave in Telangana, but BRS has been denying it again and again. What would you say about that?
The government that is losing will not accept that they are losing. People on the ground, right from Adilabad to Khammam, have decided to reject BRS this year. Voters want a people’s government where the wealth of the state is distributed among the people rather than the rulers eating it away.
What do you think has brought this wave? Is it the victory in Telangana or the declarations by the Telangana Congress?
There are cumulative factors at play here. We have been fighting against the BRS and exposing how they are cheating the people. There have been financial irregularities right from Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project and Mission Bhagiratha to Dharani portal. People were not believing us all this time, but now, these are established facts. We had told the BRS government that there was no need to spend so much money on the Kaleshwaram project. This project came into being after redesigning the Pranahitha Chevella project which was built when Congress was in power in united Andhra Pradesh. It cost only Rs 28,000 crore.
But KCR redesigned it and took the expenditure to Rs 1, 25,000 crore. That too was not put into good use. The SRSP (Sri Ram Sagar Project) built during the then Congress government on the Godavari is still standing tall, but the pillars of the Kaleshwaram project are already sinking. On the other hand, there are no cracks in the SRSP. This has happened because KCR and his contractor friends siphoned off money. Not even 50 per cent of the money sanctioned for the project has been spent on it.
The National Dam Safety Authority released a report that said the KLIS was not planned properly. What was planned was not designed, and whatever was designed was not executed in a proper manner.
In the same way, Mission Bhagiratha is a failed project. Firstly, most rural areas already have locally sanctioned water supply schemes. I undertook a padayatra from Adilabad to Khammam. When I met the Gonds in the interior forests of Adilabad, they said they are not getting regular water supply and are still managing with the connections built during the previous Congress government. That is why voters now want a people’s government instead of the one run by feudal lords.
Election victory in Karnataka, my padayatra, regular programmes, campaigning by national leaders — all these factors have created a Congress wave in Telangana.
BRS has been attacking Telangana Congress president Revanth Reddy saying that he belongs to the RSS. Any comment?
Yes, Revanth was in the RSS many years ago and he has told us that. As people age, their thought processes do not remain the same. Change is a continuous process. He has no links with that organisation now.
When the PM was in Hyderabad recently, he announced setting up of a task force to expedite categorisation of SC community. As someone who belongs to the SC community, what would you say about his promises?
BJP is using all castes and sub-castes for political gains. The Congress party had passed resolutions to this effect when it was in power, and now too. There is no doubt that Congress is committed to the uplift of marginalised communities.