Hyderabad: The Union Budget 2024-2025 has given a significant amount of funds to Andhra Pradesh, causing political tension in Telangana. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy criticized this move, saying the central government favored Andhra Pradesh over Telangana. This issue is expected to spark a political fight between the Congress, BRS, and BJP during the State Assembly’s budget session.
While the Budget speech was still being delivered, BRS working president K T Rama Rao took to ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter) to express his frustration, stating that Telangana received nothing from the budget. Later in the evening, Chief Minister Reddy also voiced his disappointment, calling the situation discriminatory and demanding Union Minister G Kishan Reddy’s resignation.
The BRS plans to blame the Congress government for not securing funds from the Centre. On the flip side, the government will argue that the BRS’s poor policies over the past 10 years are the reason for the lack of funds. Both parties intend to criticize the Centre for allegedly cheating the people who had elected 8 MPs from Telangana to the Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, the BJP is preparing detailed information on the state’s allocations to counter these claims.
The BJP is likely to defend itself by pointing out specific allocations such as 290 km of roads under the Orvakal node scheme and investments in roads and textile parks. They argue that criticism of grants for projects like Polavaram is misplaced, as it was originally proposed by Congress and supported by the then TRS party. The BJP maintains that projects like Byarram are not feasible and thus not funded.
Despite these explanations, Congress and BRS argue that apart from routine allocations, Telangana has received no special consideration, which they see as discrimination. The state government plans to initiate a debate on this issue in the assembly, accusing the Centre of being vindictive towards Telangana.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy mentioned that he had visited Delhi 18 times and submitted multiple representations to the Prime Minister and other ministers, but none were considered.
BRS leaders also criticized Reddy, saying he met three Union ministers in a single day just before the budget presentation, calling it a political stunt to hide his own failures.
