Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Thursday flagged-off the 22-day Telangana Poru Yatra organised by his party functionaries on the banks of the river Krishna in Maktal in Mahbubnagar district.
Addressing the gathering –which marks BJP’s own efforts to achieve separate statehood for Telangana—Gadkari said people should vote BJP to power in the next general elections for Telangana to become a reality.
“ We need the majority to establish a government at the centre, which will bring a Bill to carve a Telangana state,” he said. He assured the people Telangana that farmers of the region will benefit from a separate state as they have a say in irrigation schemes and get a fair share of river water.
“On my way to Maktal by helicopter I saw the parched landscape of Telangana. Without water there is no farming and farmers starve,” he said promising interlinking of rivers for the benefit of farmers in arid Telangana region.
Gadkari noted that BJP has been ruling nine states in the country with 34 per cent of people in the country have voted for the party.
BJP state unit president G Kishan Reddy said the Yatra was organised to create awareness on the need for Telangana. Rejecting reports that the BJP is getting milage out of the statehood issue, he said development of the region is only possible with the formation of the state of Telangana. He said the Yatra is not against sentiments of other regions in the state.
Reddy said the opposition part would put pressure on the Centre to introduce the bill for the formation of Telangana in the Parliament’s Budget session, failing which, he said, the BJP would campaign for general elections with formation of Telangana at the core of its promises.
He said the Yatra would highlight the scarcity of irrigation water in some parts of Telangana, asking the government to allocate funds to work on a solution. The concluding meet of yatra would be held in the Nizamabad district, where national level leaders are expected to participate in the event.
The 3,500-km long Poru Yatra will touch 986 villages in 88 Assembly constituencies across the Telangana and end on the banks of Godavari at Bhadrachalam in Khammam district on February 9.
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