KCR pitchforks himself onto national stage: ‘India needs alternative agenda, not new front’

Addressing the party’s 21st Foundation Day celebrations, Rao said, “If Hyderabad sets the agenda for the qualitative change in the country, it would be a moment of pride for Telangana.’’

Rao, who is also exploring the possibility of setting up a non-NDA front, asserted that he had turned down the Left parties’ idea of dislodging the ruling BJP at the Centre and insisted that uplifting people’s lives was more important.

“Communist leaders met me and said we want to bring change so I should join them. I asked, how will we do it? Their plan was to bring down the BJP at the Centre. I told them it was a waste plan…it is for the people of this country to bring down or elect a government, not political parties,’’ he said.

Rao said there is a scope for a new political power to emerge with people’s agenda. “India will react because it will want an alternative agenda and from it there is a possibility of a new political power to emerge based on people’s agenda,” he said.

Before the event started, the TRS flag was hoisted by the CM. Several TRS leaders and activists attending the event suggested that TRS should enter national politics with the name ‘Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi’.

A few more glimpses of the TRS Party plenary meeting being held at HICC in Hyderabad.#21YearsOfTRS pic.twitter.com/hLNXm8JCte

— TRS Party (@trspartyonline) April 27, 2022

Rao said the state has emerged as a role model for other states, but it needed to achieve even more. About 3,000 delegates of his party were present at the event.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao addressng the TRS Party plenary meeting. (Photo: Twitter/@trspartyonline)

The CM, who is in his second term, said he was concerned over water wars and shortage of power in the country despite the availability of natural resources. The CM said people from 11 states come to Telangana for work not only because they get employment here but also because it is a safe place without any law and order problems.

“These days, what are we hearing? They are abusing a person like Mahatma Gandhi who left his lawyer’s job and spent years in jails fighting for freedom. These people are abusing such a great man and praising Godse. Is this our culture? In which direction is this country going? Why this whipping up of religious hatred? There are so many issues that the country is facing: inflation, unemployment, hunger, but the focus is not on addressing these issues, instead we are seeing manipulation of sentiments in the name of Pulwama or surgical strike or Kashmir Files,’’ he said.

“In Bengaluru, more than 30 lakh IT professionals work. It took a long time to bring that city to that status but what are we seeing now? Controversy over hijab and halal, and boycott of fruit and flower sellers belonging to other communities,’’ he said.

Rao had founded the TRS on April 27, 2001, with the purpose of attaining the separate state of Telangana, which was finally carved out of Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014.