"Dora then, Dora now," Telangana Congress ad mocks KCR'S 'hypocrisy'

HYDERABAD: Three days ahead of the Assembly elections in Telangana, the Congress Party has come up with a campaign that mocks state chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao's "hypocrisy" and dubs him as 'dora'- a feudal dominant caste landlord.

Full-page advertisements published on Monday in daily newspapers in the state list 14 statements made by KCR on which he allegedly changed his stand over the years.

The statements over which the CM allegedly changed his stand include the appointment of a Dalit Chief Minster for the state and the implementation of a 12-percent reservation for Muslims. In the comic layout, several grids titled 'Dora then' portray the caricatures of KCR, who is shown promising certain things to the public in the past. Juxtaposing these are grids titled 'Dora now' referring to the CM's changed stand.

"I will make a Dalit CM," the past version of KCR says in the first grid under 'dora then', while the current version, 'dora now' says, "They cannot run the state." Each grid mentions several such promises and statements of the Telangana CM. in 2014, the BRS party [then TRS] supremo had promised a 12 per cent reservation for Muslims of the state in Shadnagar, a town about 40 km from Hyderabad.

In 2017, the BRS government passed the Telangana Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes (reservation of seats in educational institutions and of appointments or posts in services under the state) Bill. Through the bill, the Telangana government aimed to hike the quota for Muslims and Scheduled Tribes.

Up until then, Muslims were allotted a four per cent quota under the Other Backward Classes category, while STs were given a six per cent quota. However, when the state government forwarded the bill to the union government, asking for it to be cleared and incorporated into the ninth schedule of the constitution, it was denied.

Leaders of the opposition parties, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, including PM Modi, Amit Shah and Rahul Gandhi, have criticised KCR for not keeping his promise of appointing a Dalit Chief Minister. Prior to this, the Congress party poll campaign mocked the BJP, BRS and AIMIM through a cut-out, which showed Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi as puppets tethered to PM Modi.

The Congress has repeatedly alleged that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) are B-teams of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Assembly elections in Telangana are scheduled to be held in a single phase on November 30.