Bhadradri Kothagudem (Telangana): Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) President and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has said that the country needs "democratic maturity".

"As soon as elections come, abusing each other, telling lies, talking without shame, and making false promises--all these happen in our country. We need to achieve more democratic maturity in our country," he said while a public meeting in Kothagudem on Sunday.

He further appealed to the people to consider the party standing behind any candidate contesting any elections.

"As elections come, there will be a candidate for each party. We have Vanama Venkateshwar Rao from BRS. There will be someone from Congress, Communist and BJP. The people should think about the candidate's good and bad. More importantly, you should think about the party that is standing behind the candidate. You have to think about the history and path of the political party," he added.

Meanwhile, KCR held Congress responsible for losing out on a 49 percent stake in Singareni Collieries Company Limited to the Central government.

In a scathing critique, KCR accused the Congress of 49 per cent share of the company to the centre, saying that governments of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh could not repay the loans obtained from the Centre due to their inefficiency and ended up giving away shares in SCCL, which was part of Telangana's legacy.

"Singareni has a history of 134 years. Singareni is the black gold of Telangana. Singareni was 100 per cent ours earlier. However, the incompetent Congress leaders took debts from the central government and did not repay it for 30-40 years. Due to this, the central government gained 49 per cent share in Singareni," KCR said.

He further said that Singareni, founded by the Nizams of Hyderabad, had a rich history of 134 years and its coal mines were intertwined with the lives of the people of Telangana.

"The mines which was started during the Nizam period was fully ours but later 49 per cent share was given to central government. We suffered huge losses because of this. You should think how was Singareni before and how it is now. We have changed the path of Singareni after Telanagana was formed. Singareni was in losses during the Congress governments. As soon as Telanagana was formed, in the first step, we have given 3 per cent Telanagana state increment. The company's turnover was Rs 11,000 crores during Congress rule, we have taken it to Rs 33,000 crores. The profits from Singareni was only Rs 419 crores, we have taken it to Rs 2,184 crores. Earlier, the profits distributed to the employees was only Rs 60-70 crores per year, however we have distributed Rs 700 crores to the employees this Dussehra festival," he added.

Telangana will go for Assembly elections on November 30 and counting of votes, along with those of four other poll-bound states, has been scheduled for December 3.
Telangana is set to witness an intriguing triangular contest between the BRS, Congress, and BJP.

In the previous Assembly elections in 2018, the BRS won 88 of the 119 seats, hogging 47.4 per cent of the total vote share. The Congress finished a distant second with 19 seats and a vote share of 28.7 per cent.