Hyderabad, August 03: Legislative Assembly Speaker N Kiran Kumar Reddy administered the oath of office to the re-elected eleven Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs at his chambers in the Assembly today.
Before taking the oath the new MLAs paid rich floral tributes to Telangana martyrs at Gun Park opposite the Assembly. All of them, sporting pink kanduvas, reached the Assembly on foot from the Gun Park amid shouts of ‘Jai Telangana’ raised by their followers.
Speaking to reporters later, TRS Legislature Party (TRSLP) leader E Rajender said that they had dedicated their victory to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sake of Telangana. He thanked all the people of the region and various joint action committees (JACs) for their resounding victory.
“Though the Congress and the TDP tried to divert the focus of the people, the TRS won by huge margins,” he said. “It is not the individuals who won the election, it was the self-respect of Telangana which emerged victorious in the byelections,” Rajender remarked.
He said the TRS would intensify its fight for a separate Telangana and also, at the same time, focus on problems like scarcity of water and power in the region.
TRSLP deputy leader T Harish Rao suggested to the TDP and Congress to introspect at least now and alleged that the two parties had betrayed the TRS after forging an alliance with it during elections in the past.
Both the parties lost their deposits in the byelections now and if they did not change their stance at least now their very existence in the region would be uncertain, he said.
Harish Rao dared TDP leader N Janardhan Reddy and others to question their party chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Telangana at the Politburo meetings. “If TDP leaders do not have the guts to speak to Naidu at the Politburo meeting, they should at least write an open letter to him demanding a change of the party’s stand on Telangana,” Rao said.
Making a fervent appeal to students not to commit suicide, the separatist MLAs said Telangana culture demands that one should fight against injustice but not sacrifice one’s life.
–Agencies