If there is a common thread in the campaign theme of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the BJP for the Assembly polls, it’s certainly their unsparing attack on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The election agreement between the TDP, the ruling party in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, and the Congress for election to the 119-member Telangana House, has also come under fire from the two parties, which have dubbed it “unholy.” After all, how can the TDP, a party formed in 1982 by actor-turned-politician N.T. Rama Rao on an anti-Congress plank, join hands with the Congress, they ask.
The TRS and BJP leaders allege that if the Congress-TDP alliance comes to power in Telangana, it would be Mr. Naidu calling the shots from Andhra Pradesh.
Congress and TDP leaders strongly counter their arguments, saying they joined forces to fight the “divisive and destructive politics” of the BJP and end the “misrule” of the TRS government, which let all sections of people down with its false promises.” “The Congress is sold out to TDP,” Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao said, and alleged that the Telangana Congress was being run by Mr. Naidu. “Candidates for the Congress and TDP alliance are being dictated by Naidu. He seems to be the chief sponsor of Telangana Congress Party both financially and also administratively,” he said.