Congress Takes Biryani Politics Telangana To A New High

Hyderabad: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday said that Hyderabad was like a "cooked biryani" which Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao got following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

The former union minister said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief had no contribution in the making of this "biryani".

Talking to reporters at Sangareddy in Telangana during campaigning for next month's Assembly election, the Congress leader termed the tech hub a ready to eat "biryani", the famous dish of the historic city.

He recalled that at the time of bifurcation in 2014, there was a dispute over Hyderabad. The question was should it go to Telangana or should it be a joint capital of the two states or a union territory.

Jairam Ramesh, who played a key role in the bifurcation process, said United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided that Hyderabad will "100 percent" go to Telangana.

"Hyderabad with revenues of Rs 16,000 crore was like a cooked biryani," he said and pointed out that same has now crossed Rs 25,000 crore.

"KCR got cooked biryani. He had no role in its making," said the Congress leader while pointing out that former Chief Ministers like Brahmanand Reddy, N.T. Rama Rao, N. Chandrababu Naidu, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Kiran Kumar Reddy contributed in developing Hyderabad.

He said when it was decided that Hyderabad will go to Telangana, people from Andhra wanted to know what they will get for this loss of Rs 16,000 crore. Manmohan Singh then promised that Andhra Pradesh will get special category status for five years.

Jairam Ramesh criticized KCR for demanding special category status to Telangana now. He said the TRS chief had made no such demand in 2014. He alleged that making such a demand now was nothing but betrayal. (IANS)

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