Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah yesterday ruled out an alliance with Telangana’s ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi for the upcoming assembly elections in the state and said the TRS owed an explanation to the people for imposing additional expenditure by calling early polls.
Shah, who was in Hyderabad 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 after nine months.
Shah said Rao had initially supported Modi’s idea of “one nation one election” but he was surprised when the chief minister suddenly changed his stand.
“Rao and TRS have forced a small state to bear the expenditure of two elections. The 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.
He 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 the party for passing a resolution to provide 12% reservation to Muslims and sending it to the central government for its approval.
Claiming that the Modi government provided Rs.2.3 lakh crore to Telangana during the last four years against the Rs15,000 crore given during the Congress rule, Shah said the BJP showed no discrimination towards any state but was opposed to the politics of appeasement.
Shah dared the TRS to name a Dalit as its chief ministerial candidate.
He recalled that Rao had promised before the 2014 elections that a Dalit will be made the chief minister but when TRS won the elections, he himself became the chief minister.
“I want to ask KCR, will you fulfil this promise at least this time or will make your son the chief minister?” said Shah.
The BJP chief slammed TRS government for what he called excesses on Dalits, tribals and farmers. He claimed that more than 4,500 farmers committed suicide in Telangana during the last four years of TRS rule.
BJP supporters attend a public meeting being addressed by party chief Amit Shah in Mahabubnagar district of Telangana yesterday.
