JOIN USTelangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday predicted doom for the BJP in Telangana for aligning with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
“I don’t know why the BJP is tagging along with the TDP and Chandrababu Naidu. He is shani (saturn), and the BJP will perish with him, like it happened in 2004,” said KCR. He also predicted that the Congress will not get more than 23-35 seats in the Telangana Assembly elections.
Releasing the party's first list of candidates for Assembly polls, KCR said the BJP met its Waterloo after it went with the TDP in 2004.
“In 1999, it was the BJP alliance and the charisma and image of Atal Bihari Vajpayee that gave Chandrababu Naidu his second life and term, and not because of the TDP's rule, which was the butt of criticism for following World Bank policies. Even the Left parties had drifted away from Naidu,” he said.
Statehood
Rao hit back at the Congress over criticism for not merging with it or even considering an alliance with it after Telangana was granted statehood, and said, “There was nothing wrong in the TRS demanding the chief minister's post. The Congress did not deserve the chief minister's post, as it never played any role in the Telangana movement all these days,” he said.
KCR said the TRS is not interested in any poll alliance with either the Congress or the BJP, as it has made clear again and again.
He added that his government would recover all the land illegally granted by YSR and Chandrababu Naidu in Hyderabad and other places.
The TRS' first list of 69 candidates for the Assembly elections includes KCR, his son K T Rama Rao and nephew T Harish Rao. Declaring the party election manifesto, KCR said he would release the second list candidates, for 50 Assembly and 17 parliament seats, in a day or two.
The number 69 is considered lucky for both the TRS and Rao himself: His car number, his house number and his mobile number all add up to 69. In its 13-year political history, all important announcements were made on Fridays, and in consonance with the numeric strength of its leader.
The TRS has promised 50 lakh jobs and 10 thermal power stations—of total 13,000 MW—in five years, and also to make Hyderabad a software and hardware hub.