While Hyderabad braces for its water needs, BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao is pointing fingers — not at the sky, but at the state government. On Sunday, 25 October 2026, KTR posted photographs purportedly showing 20,000 cusecs of water flowing at the Kannepalli Pump House, part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, accusing the Revanth Reddy-led Congress government of deliberately refusing to lift the water to deny credit to a KCR-era infrastructure project.

KTR's post opens with a pointed jibe — 'Telangana is facing the adverse impact of El Congo (inept Congress rule), not El Niño!' — framing what he calls a manufactured water crisis as a product of political vendetta, not nature. He shared the images following a delegation visit by BRS MLAs and leaders to the Kannepalli Pump House, described as an exercise to 'expose the failure of Congress Govt in utilising the water that is readily available.'

Hyderabad's Thirst vs. Kannepalli's Flow

At the heart of the allegation is a stark arithmetic. According to KTR, Hyderabad requires just about 1,000 cusecs of water daily for drinking needs — a fraction of what he claims is currently flowing, unused, at Kannepalli. The implication is blunt: the infrastructure exists, the water is present, and the decision not to lift it is wilful.

The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, formally inaugurated in 2019 under then-Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, was designed to lift and distribute Godavari river waters across Telangana for both irrigation and drinking purposes. It remains one of the most ambitious — and contested — infrastructure legacies of the BRS decade in power. Since the Congress party's decisive victory in the December 2023 Telangana assembly elections, the project has sat at the centre of an intensifying political battle over credit, accountability, and utilisation.

A Pattern of Political Blame Over BRS Infrastructure

KTR's broadside fits a well-worn post-election script. Since Chief Minister Revanth Reddy took office, BRS leaders have repeatedly accused the new administration of under-utilising or sidelining BRS-era projects — from irrigation schemes to urban development initiatives — framing the neglect as deliberate rather than administrative. The Congress government, for its part, has questioned the financial and structural integrity of the Kaleshwaram project itself, a counter-narrative that has fuelled months of parliamentary and public debate.

What makes the 25 October post sharper than routine opposition fire is its specificity: a named pump house, photographic evidence of a delegation visit, and a direct arithmetic comparison between available supply and city demand. KTR calls the situation 'not a natural calamity, but the result of a deliberate conspiracy by Revanth Reddy' — language designed to shift the water crisis from the realm of engineering into the realm of political culpability.

What Telangana's Irrigation Department Has Not Said

As of this report, neither the Telangana Irrigation Department nor the state's Municipal Administration machinery has issued a formal response to the specific claim about Kannepalli pump operations or outlined any revised action plan for Hyderabad's water supply. That silence — whether temporary or deliberate — only amplifies the opposition's megaphone.

The ball is now in the Congress government's court. A credible, technical rebuttal — or the absence of one — will determine whether KTR's 'El Congo' frame sticks in the public mind heading into the next political cycle.