The BRS on Saturday accused the Congress government in Telangana of failing to prepare for El Nino and then shifting the blame onto its predecessor for the ongoing power and water shortages. Former Energy Minister G Jagadishwar Reddy delivered the counterattack at a press conference in Hyderabad, and he did not hold back.

The party said the government was using political manoeuvres to divert public attention and cover up its own failures. Its response targeted Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Uttam Kumar Reddy over their claims about the power and water crisis.

The El Nino warning that was ignored

Jagadishwar Reddy said experts had been warning the State government about the impact of El Nino for the past nine months. Several countries and States, he said, had taken proactive steps in anticipation of the weather phenomenon.

The Congress government, in his telling, did not put contingency measures in place. He said criticism of BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao and the previous BRS government would not solve the problems people are facing right now.

He also accused Ministers of making cheap and nonsensical remarks by blaming the BRS for the El Nino crisis. He pointed to the Covid-19 pandemic as a benchmark. “Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, K Chandrashekhar Rao ensured uninterrupted power and water supply,” he said.

Electricity prices and the Revanth Reddy claim

The sharpest attack was aimed at the Chief Minister’s statements on electricity. Jagadishwar Reddy accused Revanth Reddy of making false claims about power availability and prices in the market.

He said Revanth Reddy had made baseless and irresponsible claims that power could not be bought even at Rs.15 per unit. According to him, electricity prices had ranged from Rs. 3.97 to Rs. 6.74 per unit even last week. After 10 pm, he added, power was available at Rs.1.90 per unit.

Prices fluctuate, he argued, and that is exactly why the Congress government should have tracked the market and bought power at the right time. He said that was the approach BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao followed in the past.

The Yadadri plant fight

Jagadishwar Reddy also went after the government’s arguments on the Yadadri thermal power plant. The government has said the plant sits in a region without coal reserves. He countered by asking why power plants had been built in Vijayawada and Kadapa, which also lack local coal resources.

His distance figures were the centre of his case. He said the Yadadri plant is less than 250 km from Singareni. The distance from Singareni to Vijayawada, he said, is more than 530 km. Mahanadi Coalfields is more than 1,200 km from Vijayawada, and more than 1,500 km from Kadapa.

He said K Chandrashekhar Rao had envisaged the Yadadri plant as a way to promote development in a backward region. He also questioned why the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) were set up in Hyderabad rather than Delhi.

The Krishna water charge

The most incendiary line of the press conference came when Jagadishwar Reddy turned to water. He charged that Revanth Reddy had set aside the interests of his home district and allowed water to be moved elsewhere.

“Revanth Reddy set aside the interests of his home district Palamuru and allowed River Krishna water to be diverted 700 kilometres away to Kuppam for Chandrababu’s benefit,” Jagadishwar Reddy charged.

That accusation turns the dispute into a cross-border fight. Kuppam is in Andhra Pradesh, and the charge ties Telangana’s water policy to a political rival across the state line.

Why the Andhra Pradesh angle matters

The Andhra Pradesh connection is not a side note in this row. The BRS leader cited Vijayawada and Kadapa, both in Andhra Pradesh, as examples of power plants built far from coal. He used them to argue that the Congress government’s coal argument against Yadadri does not hold up.

The Krishna water allegation adds a second link. It places Telangana’s water decisions in the same frame as a neighbouring state’s interests, which is why the charge is likely to carry weight beyond Hyderabad.

Commissions, not relief

Jagadishwar Reddy also accused Congress leaders of focusing on collecting “commissions” instead of addressing the challenges posed by El Nino. He said the government had repeated the same arguments for the past three years without taking any steps to provide relief to the public.

That is the charge that will land hardest with ordinary consumers. Power prices are moving, water is short, and the political fight has shifted to who is to blame. The BRS is betting that voters will judge the government on the results, not on the arguments.

The Congress government has framed the shortages through the Yadadri plant and electricity procurement. The BRS has answered with price data, distance figures and a direct charge against the Chief Minister. Neither side has yet offered a relief plan that answers the question on every household’s mind: when does the supply situation improve?