"Telangana govt sponsoring entire Congress at public expense": BRS leader K Kavitha

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], February 3 (ANI): Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leader K Kavitha on Saturday trained guns at the Telangana government led by the Congress party, claiming that the former is 'sponsoring' the entire Congress at the expense of the public.
"Our Chief Minister, Revanth Reddy, stated yesterday in a public meeting that he was going to invite Priyanka Gandhi for a government programme. We severely protest that attitude because Priyanka Gandhi does not enjoy any protocol here in Telangana. And as far as my knowledge is concerned, she has never been in any publicly elected post, not even a Sarpanch, MLA or MP. She is not even a sitting MP or MLA. So with what protocol is she being invited to a government programme? We will oppose her if she attends a public programme that is sponsored by the Government of Telangana," Kavitha told ANI.
"Otherwise, if it's a party programme, she is their leader and it is their decision. As a person from Telangana, I will also welcome her to the state with the utmost respect but not to a government programme. Secondly, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are sitting MPs; call them. But how can you call someone who does not have any protocol for a government programme that is being run by people's money? Now, if we look at the attitude of our CM Revanth Reddy, the Jharkhand crisis is now happening in Telangana, but at the expense of Telangana public money," she added.
Kavitha further claimed that the state government is sponsoring the entire Congress party at the expense of the public.
"If you want to organise resorts or security for your own MLAs because you can't keep them together, you should do it at your party's expense. But police personnel are going there and giving them an escort is very unfortunate. Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra is also being sponsored from Telangana, starting from the bus he uses to the protocol he gets. Today, Telangana is sponsoring the entire Indian National Congress election across the nation," said the BRS leader.
"In a way, it is good. But in a way, it is really bad because our public money is being spent on the political participation of Congress. We condemn this. The government should transparently tell Telangana people that no public money is being used to save their MLAs and that Priyanka Gandhi will not be invited for a government programme," she added.
K Kavitha also spoke on the rift within the INDIA bloc and said that had the alliance raised 'people's issues', it would have stood.
"I have been saying for 3-4 months that the INDI alliance will not stand by the time the elections in the five states are over. The same thing has happened. But it is not a great thing; all parties are looking at their own party stance and no one is thinking about the country. It is a really unfortunate development. This is why KCR always talked about a third front. Unfortunately, we could not go to other states because of the results we got in the Telangana elections. But ultimately, a third front is the only solution. The reason why those who opposed NDA failed is because they only thought about removing NDA and not about the people's agenda. If you had talked about the people's agenda, then the alliance would have stood. It is an unfortunate thing," she said.
A rift emerged within the mega alliance after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann announced that they would go solo in their respective states in the Lok Sabha polls.
The alliance suffered another setback after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who left no stone unturned in uniting the opposition, joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
However, seat-sharing talks are underway within the alliance. (ANI)