KOLHAPUR: Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who visited Pandharpur and welcomed NCP politician Bhagirath Bhalke into his party fold, responded to allegations that his party — Bharat Rashtra Samithi — was playing second fiddle to BJP or Congress.
“Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is not the ‘B team’ of BJP, nor is it the ‘A team’ of Congress. It is the team of farmers, backward communities, Dalits and minorities,” Rao, who is popularly known as KCR, said at Sarkoli, in Pandharpur tehsil of Solapur district, at a congregation of farmers.
After holding rallies in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions recently, this was KCR’s first rally in the western Maharashtra region that is considered a Congress and NCP stronghold. The recent induction of two prominent local NCP politicians into BRS has created unease in the political circles of Maharashtra.
“We have just started in Maharashtra, why are all these parties making such an uproar? What do they fear?” asked KCR.
The Telangana chief minister added: “We are not anyone’s team but of farmers, backward communities, Dalits and minorities. BRS is the only party in India that said ‘Ab Ki Bar Kisan Sarkar (a government of farmers this time)’.”
The Telangana chief minister also responded to Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis’s statement that he (KCR) should go back to Telangana.
“I told him that if Telangana policies are implemented in Maharashtra, I will not come to Maharashtra. I will go to Madhya Pradesh instead. He has not responded yet,” said the BRS chief.
He added that leaders here say that Maharashtra will go bankrupt if Telangana schemes are implemented here. “I agree that there will be bankruptcy, but it will be of these leaders. Farmers will celebrate Diwali. The state will not go bankrupt,” he said.
Pitching his national agenda, the BRS chief said the time has come to dump the current water and energy policies of the Union government, and draft a new framework.
He added there is adequate water in the country to irrigate every acre and meet drinking water needs. Similarly, there is enough coal reserve, yet coal companies are being privatised and imported, he said.
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