JOIN USTRS mulls campaigning against BJP in Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi leadership is considering campaigning against the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh elections.
The ruling party in Telangana is on a collision course with the BJP over various issues like the central government’s alleged refusal to buy the state's paddy.
In a social media interaction on Thursday, Telangana's IT, industries and urban development minister KT Rama Rao opined that “the present trend in Uttar Pradesh looks favourable to Samajwadi Party.”
The comment was made in reference to the flight of a few UP legislators from the BJP to Samjwadi Party (SP), ahead of the state assembly elections scheduled to be held in seven phases in February-March.
“We will take a call soon after consultations,” said KTR, as the minister is popularly known. KTR is the son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and is also the TRS's working president.
It was not clear if SP leader Akhilesh Yadav had solicited TRS support.
KTR's statement comes close on the heels of CM Rao's separate meetings with the CPI, CPM and RJD leaders. While the Left leaders, including Sitaram Yechury, D Raja, were in Hyderabad last week for their party related programmes, former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad's son and Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav made “a courtesy call” to Rao at his official residence on Tuesday.
Last month, Rao met DMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin in Chennai after the Kalvakuntla family visited Srirangam temple.
Sources said that the current political situation in the country was discussed in all the meetings.
Ahead of the 2019 elections, chief minister Rao went to meet key political figures like Mamata Banerjee, with a reported agenda of forming a “federal front.” The idea was shelved with BJP retaining power with an improved majority in the Lok Sabha.
However, following the political meetings now, Rao on Wednesday gave “a clarion call to people of Telangana and the country to root out the BJP government.”
Rao accused the BJP of weakening the rural economy, hereditary trades, “while playing havoc with the farm sector to hand it over to the corporates.” Earlier in November, Rao announced Rs three lakh compensation each for the families of over 700 farmers who died during the year-long anti-farm laws agitation.
The #AskKTR twitter session on Thursday took place in this backdrop.
When questioned about his views on entering national politics, KTR replied, “I am happy to be in Telangana serving my state.”
“We would continue to focus on good governance and development. People here want peace and stability,” KTR said when asked about the TRS strategy in dealing with BJP.
In the 119 seated Telangana Assembly, BJP has only three MLAs but two of these seats – Dubbaka, Huzurabad – were gained by serving body blows to the TRS. The 2020 Hyderabad civic polls also saw a saffron surge in the city.
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