A drought born not of clouds but of choices — that is the charge BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao levelled at the Telangana Congress government on Friday, October 16, 2026, in a blistering post that has reignited the state's sharpest political flashpoint: who lost the water?

The Numbers at the Centre of the Storm

Rama Rao's post, written in Telugu, opens with a pointed line: 'కాలం తెచ్చిన కరువు కాదు.. కాంగ్రెస్ తెచ్చిన కరువు ఇది!!' — 'This is not a drought brought by time.. this is a drought brought by Congress!!' He claims that from June 1, 2026 to the date of his post, the state government released over 750 TMC of Godavari water and 250 TMC of Krishna water downstream without storing it. The research block flags these specific volumes as unverified from public records, but the political salvo is unambiguous.

The allegation is layered: Rama Rao argues the Kannepalli and Devadula pump stations on the Godavari — infrastructure built under the previous BRS regime — were not operated effectively to fill reservoirs and tanks even when river flows were available. He makes the same case for the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme on the Krishna, claiming its pumps were left idle while Krishna water flowed unused downstream.

El Niño Warnings That Went Unheeded

The post adds a forward-looking dimension to the critique: climate scientists had been warning since March 2026 of an incoming El Niño event, the periodic Pacific warming pattern that typically suppresses monsoon rainfall over peninsular India. Rama Rao's argument is that a government forewarned had no excuse — reservoirs and tanks could have been pre-filled during the window when rivers were running, but the administration did not act.

El Niño-linked forecasts have shaped political rhetoric around irrigation planning in the region before. In deficit years, the question of who operated which pump and when becomes intensely consequential for millions of farmers dependent on lift irrigation.

Andhra Pradesh Steps In — and Kupp am Gets Water

The sharpest passage in the post targets the downstream beneficiary. Rama Rao alleges that the moment Telangana's Congress government released the water, the Andhra Pradesh government moved quickly — drawing Godavari water through the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme and Krishna water via the Potheriddi Padu and Veligonda Tunnel — and even channelling flows to Kuppam, the constituency of AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The insinuation is deliberate and politically loaded: water that Telangana farmers needed ended up irrigating a rival state's prized political geography.

Inter-state water disputes between the two states have simmered since the 2014 Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act created the Krishna and Godavari River Management Boards to adjudicate post-bifurcation allocations. Those boards remain the formal arbiter of releases; neither has yet issued a public response to the figures cited in Rama Rao's post.

BRS's Political Play in the Opposition Trenches

For the BRS, water is the sharpest available blade in opposition politics. The party staked much of its decade in power on mega irrigation projects — Kaleshwaram chief among them — to prove that Telangana could store and utilise its river share. Attacking the Congress government for failing to operate that same infrastructure closes a rhetorical loop: we built it, you squandered it.

The hashtags #CongressBetrayedTelangana and #CongressFailedTelangana signal a coordinated digital push, not a one-off comment. With the rabi sowing season approaching and reservoir levels under scrutiny, expect the Krishna and Godavari River Management Boards' next operational data release to become the next battleground.