Taking a shot at the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, October 1 said that Telangana’s development was blocked by two “family-run” parties. PM Modi was addressing a public gathering organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) titled Palamuru Garjana Sabha, in Telangana’s Mahabubnagar district. Within hours, Minister KT Rama Rao slammed most of the PM’s claims, while alleging that Modi himself worked in the interest of his “best friend Adani”.
Alleging that “commission” and corruption were “trademarks of the two family-run parties”, Modi said that while Telangana has the “sarkar” (government) of “car”(election symbol of BRS), the steering is in the hands of someone else, hinting at AIMIM’s association with the ruling party. BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi are on good terms and have maintained that their parties are on “friendly” terms. Like Modi, other BJP leaders in the state have always accused the BRS of letting AIMIM dictate terms.
The Prime Minister alleged that BRS and AIMIM only serve the interests of the leaders’ families. “The common man's families, however, are BJP's top priority. Telangana wants change because it does not want corruption anymore. It seeks a transparent and sincere government. It wants the BJP government and does not want false promises. Instead, it wants development,” PM Modi said. Referring to the public as BJP’s "family members," Modi expressed confidence that people will vote the BJP into power in Telangana.
Slamming these comments, KTR replied in a similar language and said that BRS was indeed a “family party” and that the residents of Telangana were its family members. He referred to BRS as a family of four crore people of Telangana, and CM KCR as the head of the family providing government schemes to them.
KTR then took a jibe at Modi’s proximity to industrialist Gautam Adani and said, “People of India are calling Pradhani (Prime Minister) as Adani”. He alleged that PM Modi was pushing public sector companies into losses, and privatising them for the benefit of his “corporate friends like Adani”.
PM Modi’s public meeting on Sunday is more or less the saffron party’s launch of its election campaign. Telangana goes to polls in December this year. While the BJP has tried to place itself as the main opposition, the wind seems to be blowing towards the Congress as all the defectors from the BRS have so far chosen to join the grand old party. The BJP in Telangana is still a second choice for political defectors.
In the 2018 state polls, the BRS won 88 out of 119 seats, while the Congress in alliance with the Telugu Desam party managed to only win 19 and two seats each. The BJP managed to just win one seat of Goshamahal in Hyderabad.
Modi also alleged that the BRS government cheated farmers in the name of loan waivers, resulting in farmer suicides in Telangana. “The state government has boasted about irrigation projects but there is no water for farmers. The BRS government has promised a loan waiver for political gains, but did not pay attention to it later,” he said. He mentioned that the Ramagundam Fertiliser Factory has been opened at a cost of Rs 6000 crore for the benefit of farmers. KTR refuted PM Modi's claims on farm loan waivers as baseless comments.
The Prime Minister along with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP National President JP Nadda, among others, are slated to hold over a dozen meetings in the next two months in the run-up to the Telangana elections.