Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Wednesday criticized Telangana’s caretaker chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for advancing the elections in the state.
Rao, who is known as KCR, wasted a huge amount of public money by doing this, alleged Shah in an address during the “Samara Bheri” public meeting in Karimnagar district, which marked the beginning of the BJP’s campaign for the forthcoming election on 7 December. He also claimed that KCR is afraid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and hence wanted to avoid the assembly elections coinciding with the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
“The upcoming elections should have taken place in April-May,” he said.
The BJP chief claimed that KCR, who is also the president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), had made 150 promises in the 2014 elections but did not fulfil all of them.
“In 2014, Chandrashekar Rao promised to provide one lakh government jobs, but no doctors or clerks have been hired by the government despite two lakh job opportunities being open with the state government,” alleged Shah.
“Chandrashekar Rao promised to give Dalits 3 acres of land each, but today seven lakh of them don’t have land equalling the size of a needle,” the BJP chief said.
Shah, who said that the BJP-led centre has given Telangana more than ₹2 trillion after it came to power in 2014, also questioned the rationale behind KCR’s promise to provide 12% reservations to minorities. “You cannot have reservations more than 50% and if he does that it will eat into the space of SC/ST and OBCs. Are you okay with that?” he asked.
Shah also promised that the BJP government, if voted to power, will drive out every single “illegal Bangladeshi immigrant” working in the state. “To do that, we started the NRC (National Register of Citizens) in Assam,” he said. However, the TRS, Telugu Desam Party, and Congress president Rahul Gandhi want them to live in Telangana, he said.
The BJP president also took pot shots at Gandhi, saying that under him his party has not been successful electorally so far. “Even if you take a magnifying glass, you won’t find the Congress anywhere in India today,” Shah said.
He added that only the BJP will be able to counter the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which is seen as the political voice of Muslims, in Telangana.
“All of them want ‘Break in India’, while Modiji wants ‘Make in India’. Do you want the former or the latter?” Shah asked the crowd rhetorically.
After the meeting, Shah left for Hyderabad to preside over a meeting with in-charges of the BJP’s assembly and parliamentary constituencies.