No alliance with KCR in Telangana, dare TRS to name Dalit as CM candidate: Amit Shah

Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Saturday ruled out any alliance with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for the coming Assembly polls in the state and said that the TRS owed an explanation to the people for imposing additional expenditure by going for early elections.

Replying to a query at a press conference, Shah, who was here to launch the party's election campaign, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's praise of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao during his speech in Parliament was in a different context and it cannot be interpreted as an understanding between the two parties.

He denied reports that the BJP was hand-in-glove with the TRS and alleged that it was the TRS and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) which were engaged in "shadow boxing".

The BJP chief wanted to know why the TRS imposed early polls on the state when the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are slated to be held nine months later.

Shah said Rao had initially supported Modi's idea of "one nation one election" but he was surprised when he suddenly changed his stand.

"Rao and TRS have forced a small state to bear expenditure of two elections. BJP believes that TRS has put an additional burden of crores of rupees on people to further its political interests," said the BJP chief.

Shah said that the BJP was ready to give a tough fight to both the TRS and the opposition Congress in every constituency. He was confident that the BJP will emerge as a strong and decisive force in the state. Shah said there was no chance of the TRS getting a fresh mandate. 

"If the TRS government comes back to power, it will continue its politics of appeasement," he said slamming it for passing a resolution to provide 12% reservation to Muslims and sending it to the Centre for its approval.

Claiming that the Modi government provided Rs.2.3 lakh crore to Telangana during the last four years against the Rs 15,000 crore given during the Congress rule, Shah said the BJP showed no discrimination towards any state but was opposed to the politics of appeasement. 

Meanwhile, Shah also dared the TRS to name a Dalit as its chief ministerial candidate.

Shah recalled that KCR had promised before the 2014 elections that a Dalit would be made the Chief Minister but when TRS won the elections, he took the post for himself.

"I want to ask KCR, will you fulfil this promise at least this time or will make your son as the Chief Minister?" said Shah.

Referring to Congress President Rahul Gandhi's statement that the Congress will form the next government in Telangana, Shah said Rahul is daydreaming. He listed the states where Congress lost the elections since 2014. The BJP leader said people of Telangana have not forgotten the treatment meted out to former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and former Chief Minister T Anjaiah by the Congress.

IANS inputs