After allegations surfaced on Congress favouring the Muslim community in their draft manifesto for Telangana, the party's state unit on Tuesday said that all such reports are completely baseless and fabricated.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson and treasurer, Guddu Narayana Reddy, clarified that they do not favour any particular community, adding that only the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would resort to such measures.
"The allegation of us having a biased manifesto is baseless. We are a secular country, there is no particular community that would be sided by any particular party, except the ruling party BJP," he told ANI.
Reports had surfaced in certain sections of media that the Congress had released a draft manifesto with poll promises to the Muslim community. However, the party claimed that they have not yet even released any such document for the state.
"We have been with all communities and this so-called draft is all fabricated. We are investigating who the person behind this is. Our disciplinary committee is going to take action against him," Reddy added.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, came down heavily on Congress party, accusing it of appeasement politics.
Speaking to ANI, Krishna Rama Rao, the BJP Telangana spokesperson said, "This is a released official manifesto of the Congress party in which the party has dedicated certain pages for Muslim appeasement."
"This is counterproductive to Muslims. This appeasement is not for empowerment but on the contrary, this is to disempower and divide people. Muslims have to realise that they are being alienated. What they (Muslims) actually need is, social and economic empowerment," he added.
Telangana will go to polls on December 7 to elect the 119 members of the legislative assembly. The counting of votes will take place on December 11.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
