JOIN USIt's Modi vs Sinha in Hyderabad as KCR plans to counter BJP
As the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national conclave begins on Saturday at Hyderabad, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi has planned a counter-offensive by hosting the Opposition’s presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.
While both prime minister Narendra Modi and Sinha will be in the city at the same time, chief minister CM K Chandrashekar Rao is snubbing Modi while laying out the red carpet for Sinha.
The BJP’s 2-day organisational meet will see the congregation of its tallest leaders, and PM Modi is scheduled to meet party leaders as the deliberations continue. Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda are part of the meetings, too.
While the prime minister will land in the city and head to the BJP’s meet held at an upscale hotel, Sinha will be welcomed by the TRS with a bike rally from the airport to the venue. Breaking away from protocol, Rao will not receive Modi at the airport and has entrusted a minister from the state government to do the needful. This will be the third time that the CM has not received the prime minister at the airport. Rao, however, will receive Sinha.
After the bike rally, Sinha is scheduled to meet MPs and MLAs of the TRS followed by a lunch that Rao is hosting in his honour. Sinha will then meet legislators of the AIMIM and then fly to Bengaluru.
The BJP is holding its annual national executive meeting after a gap of two years in Hyderabad, and party leaders said that the city was selected keeping in mind the BJP’s plans for the upcoming state elections. The party is working on an extensive strategy for the state, and the tone of this year’s meet is the BJP’s attempt to present itself as an alternative to the TRS. Some of the issues on which it has attacked the TRS are dynastic politics, bad administration and corruption.
On Friday, addressing reporters ahead of the meet, national general secretary Tarun Chugh said that the BJP will be in power in the state in the next 522 days. He said that the party is now run by KCR’s children Kavita and KT Rama Rao and that the CM is rarely seen in the CMO.
The TRS, in counter, has asked the BJP to come and learn. KT Rama Rao, the CM’s son, in a statement said, “Aao, Dekho aur Seekho (come, watch and learn)”.