Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has proposed a meeting of Chief Ministers of Southern Indian states to highlight the discrimination by the Modi Government over allocation of funds and delimitation following a disappointing Union Budget.

While demanding the resignation of Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy from the Union Cabinet over injustice meted out to the state, Reddy alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi prioritized his political interests over the welfare of the people of Telangana even though the BJP had won eight MP seats in the state.

Congress ministers and BRS leaders today slammed the Union Budget alleging discrimination against Telangana, particularly for overlooking the commitments made in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 towards the state while fulfilling the same for Andhra Pradesh.

Currently, the BJP has eight MPs from the state yet the finance minister did not even mention Telangana in her Budget speech. He called it ‘quid pro quo Budget’ where the states got funds in lieu of their support to the BJP government at the Centre

“The AP Reorganisation Act is for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. You are reading the act incorrectly. Just look at the Budget presented by Nirmala Sitharaman you will not even find the word ‘Telangana’ in it. Why so much discrimination? They are not even ready to utter ‘Telangana’ even though you gave eight MPs to them…we don’t have any issues over how much they gave to AP, Bihar or other states. We are fighting for our rights,” said Reddy while urging BJP MPs to join the protest of the Congress MPs.

He went on to allege that Prime Minister Modi only uses the Southern states for votes and uses their resources for his own political gain. He proposed a meeting of the Southern states to discuss issues key to Southern states like delimitation which is hanging on them like the sword of Damocles. They have already reached out to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh while waiting for other states like Kerala and Pondicherry to respond to their invitation.

BRS working president KT Rama Rao too lashed out saying that once again Telangana received nothing from the Union Budget. He mentioned in the past BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao had requested the central government to take decisions on nearly 35 promises made under the AP Reorganization Act.

Even the requests made by the current Chief Minister and ministers from Telangana during their visits to Delhi have been ignored.

“The people of Telangana should think about what happened when they gave 16 seats to national parties like the BJP and the Congress. They should consider the funds allocated to Andhra Pradesh and Bihar … BJP and Congress MPs sitting in the Parliament did not speak a word on behalf of Telangana,” alleged KT Rama Rao.

He added, “Telangana will certainly teach a lesson to the BJP government for giving zero funds despite having eight MPs.”