The newly inducted Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has ignited a political storm through his alleged remarks related to the “Bihari genes” of his predecessor K Chandrashekar Rao. The BJP has decided to corner the new CM on the issue and demanded that Congress, and other members of I.N.D.I.A alliance condemn the comments and ask him to apologize.
As per a report by news agency PTI, while talking to journalists, Revanth Reddy allegedly said that K Chandrashekar Rao has “Bihari genes,” which indicates that he is a better choice than the former CM. “My DNA is Telangana. KCR’s DNA is Bihar. He belongs to Bihar. KCR’s caste is Kurmi. They migrated from Bihar to Vijayanagaram and from there to Telangana. Telangana DNA is better than Bihar DNA,” Reddy had allegedly said.
The alleged remarks didn’t go well with the BJP with former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad terming the remarks “very shameful, divisive and arrogant.” “There is a strange plan going on by Congress leaders to divide the country. North-South is being started. Telangana CM (Revanth Reddy) said that our DNA is better than Bihar’s DNA…Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi did not comment on Revanth Reddy’s statement nor has the statement been withdrawn…” Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
“Your chief minister calls one region’s DNA weak and makes very shameful casteist remarks against his own party leaders (who are in Bihar), this is very unfortunate. We condemn it. The Congress party should also condemn it if they have even a little understanding of the significance of unity in the country,” the senior BJP leader said while questioning Congress’ leadership silence on the issue.
The North vs South debate has featured several times since Congress defeated the ruling BRS in the state while the BJP was nowhere close to victory in the results. Earlier, DMK MP DNV Senthil Kumar also made some objectionable references to Hindi-speaking states in Parliament while speaking on BJP’s failures in South India.
Milestone Alert!Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world 🌏 Click here to know more.
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
Published: 07 Dec 2023, 05:51 PM IST