Hyderabad:Â Hundreds of Congress workers took part in a massive bike rally to celebrate the 10th Telangana Formation Day on Friday.
Led by Sameer Waliullah, the President of the Hyderabad District Congress Committee (DCC), the rally started at Charminar in the Old City and made its way to Gandhi Bhavan, Basheerbagh, and Abids before returning to Gandhi Bhavan. The event was marked by the bursting of crackers, waving of party flags, and chants of ‘Jai Telangana’ and ‘Jai Sonia Gandhi’ echoing through the streets. The Congress leaders also showered the portrait of Sonia Gandhi with milk to express their gratitude for her role in the formation of Telangana.
Prominent Congress leaders, including Charminar Assembly constituency in-charge Mujeebullah Shareef, Block President Shakeel Dayani, former TPCC Spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin, Hyderabad Congress Minorities Dept Chairman Arshad Shaikh, Youth Congress leaders Aslam Shareef, Vinay Kumar and Mohd Shahbaz, and several senior leaders participated in the rally.
Speaking to media persons during the rally, Sameer Waliullah expressed gratitude to UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi for making the 60-year-old dream of Telangana’s statehood a reality. He reminisced about the statehood agitation in Hyderabad, which had caused significant losses to businesses and disrupted academic schedules. Despite these hardships, the people of Telangana remained resolute in their demand for statehood, he said.
Sameer Waliullah praised Sonia Gandhi for her dedication and credited her for fulfilling her commitment to grant statehood to Telangana despite knowing the fact that Congress would suffer huge electoral losses in both the Telugu States. He said Sonia Gandhi only desired that the youth of Telangana should prosper in the new state.
However, Sameer Waliullah expressed deep concern over the decline in Hyderabad’s development since the formation of the new state. He criticized Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s BRS Government for allegedly neglecting Hyderabad, a city that contributes over 80% of the state’s revenues but receives less than 5% of the development funds. He expressed disappointment in the current state of neglect of the Old City of Hyderabad under the BRS regime. He pointed out that CM KCR visited the Old City not even three times in the last nine years.”The KCR Government has shattered the dreams of Telangana,” Sameer Waliullah stated, emphasizing that the rally was not just a celebration but also a commitment to strive for the original goals of Telangana. (INN)