Telugu Desam Party president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has suspected a collusion between the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre, claiming that the two Telangana parties were behaving as “B” team of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The TDP president said the tacit understanding among these parties could be seen from the fact that they did not clarify their stand on the triple talaq bill introduced by the BJP Government.

The BJP had unilaterally introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha, and it was referred to the standing committee at the instance of the Congress and the TDP.

The MIM, on its part, was directly supporting the TRS in all these developments. “The MIM has fielded candidates in the elections in Uttar Pradesh and other States to divide the Muslim votes to favour the BJP. The party has, however, confined itself to a few constituencies in the twin cities in the interest of the TRS,” he said.

‘Splitting Hindu vote’

Mr. Naidu campaigned for party candidates Mohd. Muzaffer Ali Khan in Malakpet constituency and T. Veerender Goud in Uppal constituency on Sunday. Addressing street-corner meetings, he said the intentions of the TRS and the BJP could be seen from their decision to field candidates from Malakpet constituency where there was predominant presence of the Muslims. “This was meant to split the Hindu vote so that MIM is benefited,” he said.

TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao had not clarified his stand on joining the proposed front and was instead trying to form another front. “This front with parties like the MIM is set to act as “C” team for Mr. Modi,” he said.

On the Telangana Rashtra Samithi criticism that the TDP was trying to play active role in Telangana, he said the party would not have any say in Telangana and it was in fact favouring an effective cooperation between the two States.