New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday slammed the BJP after its Telangana MLAs refused to take the oath with AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi as the Pro-tem Speaker.
“They are just trying to create a ruckus. The Pro-tem Speaker is appointed by the state Governor and not by the ruling party. This proves that AIMIM is the B-team of the BJP,” AICC general secretary in charge Manikrao Thakre told ETV Bharat. The Congress leader’s comments came after the BJP lawmakers refused to take the oath and protested AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi administering the oath to the newly elected lawmakers.
“Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan is a former BJP functionary. She appointed Owaisi as the Pro-tem Speaker as per the norms for the oath-taking purpose on December 8. The BJP lawmakers are just trying to mislead people and get political mileage. If they have any issues, they can go and ask the Governor herself. A new Speaker would be duly elected after the oath-taking is completed,” AICC social media in charge and CWC member Supriya Shrinate told ETV Bharat.
Thakre said the BJP was miffed over the Congress’ historic win in the southern state and said that the AIMIM was indirectly helping both the BJP and the BRS during the polls. “The Congress was fighting the BRS, BJP and AIMIM which have a secret alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. They will announce it later but they helped each other during the assembly polls. That was the reason why our leader Rahul Gandhi had decided not to have any alliance with the BRS and not to include the BRS in the opposition alliance INDIA,” said Thakre.
“No leader from the BRS attended the oath-taking ceremony of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. The BRS fielded Muslim candidates in Muslim majority seats to dent the Congress votes but their plan did not work,” he said. According to party insiders, a carefully crafted campaign to appeal to the various minority communities had helped the Congress get additional votes in tightly contested polls.
“We announced a separate charter for the minorities as part of our inclusive agenda,” said Thakre. AICC functionary Ajoy Kumar who supervised the state polls said that the Revanth government had marked the beginning of a people’s administration as promised by the Congress.
“Our leader Sonia Gandhi had helped create the state but the former ruling party BRS government never cared for the people. Now it is a return of the Prajala Telangana. The new chief minister has named the chief minister’s house after a social activist and is holding public darbars where hundreds are lining up with their problems. The six guarantees for the people have been approved and will be rolled out soon. The change on the ground is showing and it is disturbing the BRS and the BJP,” said Ajoy Kumar.
Thakre said the guiding principle of the new Congress government is the social and economic transformation of the southern state which has been pushed behind by the decade-long BRS misrule.
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