Prime Minister Narendra Modi has alleged that Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) had expressed his willingness to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Addressing a public meeting in Telangana’s Nizamabad district on Tuesday, October 3, Modi alleged that KCR met him after the 2020 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections and reportedly said he wanted to join the NDA.
“KCR met me after the Municipal elections and said he wished to join NDA. I did not give him entry to NDA as I chose not to for the people of Telangana. On another occasion, KCR expressed his desire to make his son K Taraka Rama Rao (KTR) his political heir and sought my blessings. However, I rejected the idea because people of Telangana are free to choose their representative, unlike an autocratic regime,” said the Prime Minister, who was addressing his second public meeting in the last three days in Telangana.
In the 2020 GHMC elections, the BJP surprised everyone by winning 48 seats out of 150. The BRS, which won 99 seats in 2015, saw its numbers decrease to 56. The All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen retained its 44 seats, while the Congress won two seats.
KTR is currently the BRS working president and the Telangana IT minister. The ruling BRS has had a chequered relationship with the BJP-led Union government. While its MPs in the past have supported NDA’s bills, the BRS has also been a bitter critic of Modi and the BJP.
The Congress in the state has repeatedly accused the BRS and the BJP of working together. In the previous meeting at Mahabubnagar on October 1, Modi attacked the BRS and Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, stating that Telangana’s development was “blocked” by two family-run parties. PM Modi’s Mahbubnagar public meeting was also the BJP’s formal launch of its election campaign. Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders from across the country will be in Telangana to hold a series of public meetings in the run-up to the elections.
In his Nizamabad speech on Tuesday, Modi attacked the BRS and the Congress. He accused BRS of corruption and nepotism. “The Congress and its allies in southern states, especially in Tamil Nadu, are looting the wealth of temples but cannot take over the minority worship places,” he said.
Modi issued a “warning” against a “single family,” referring to KCR’s family as having too much control over the resources and policies of Telangana. “The BRS’s mantra is to loot as much as possible. So many families have sacrificed for Telangana, but now only one family has encroached upon the state. The BRS is using your votes to make their families rich. They are encouraging nepotism and corruption. The Parivar system will only appoint people who appease them. But Telangana does not need such a system,” he said.
He also cautioned Telangana's citizens against siding with the Congress, describing them as an “equally hazardous political party” shunned by the nation. Referring to the annexation of the erstwhile Hyderabad state in 1948 by the Indian Army, the Prime Minister said, “Do you remember? The country was free, but not Telangana. A Gujarati, Sardar Vallabai Patel (then Union Home Minister), showed the strength for integration. Another Gujarati is here for the development of the people of Telangana.”