HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao seems to have had the last laugh in the ongoing tussle with the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over paddy procurement, thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing the repeal of the three farms laws.
With the Prime Minister’s announcement coming just a day after Chandrashekar Rao threatened to mobilise support of farmers and political parties to the nationwide agitation against the farm laws, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) was quick to give credit to its leader for the Friday’s development.
The Chief Minister already got a shot in the arm with the Centre on Thursday expressing its inability to procure more paddy and asking states to encourage alternative crops to paddy and wheat. This is in sharp contrast to the state BJP leaders asking farmers to grow paddy and demanding that the state government procure till the last grain.
Ministers, MPs and other elected representatives queued up since the Prime Minister’s announcement to claim the credit. Ministers K. T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao saluted the farmers for their relentless fight, while they called it the success of their supremo.
The overjoyed energy minister G. Jagadish Reddy went on to announce that the Chief Minister would undertake agitation against the Centre demanding repeal of electricity amendment bill which also insists on several reforms including fixing meters to agriculture power connections.
“Modi seems to be worried over the impact that Chandrashekar Rao could have brought to the farmers’ agitation. He must have thought that Rao’s initiative with the Maha Dharna will make South India rally against the farm laws,” said agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy.
The TRS cadres were happy over the Chief Minister’s strategy to dilute the outcome of Huzurabad bypoll picking up from Bandi Sanjay’s call to farmers to grow paddy. The Chief Minister, besides holding media interactions on successive days, led the Maha Dharna of TRS demanding the Centre to spell its stand on procurement.
The TRS also sought to differentiate between the Central and state leadership of the BJP which the ruling party fears to be emerging as the prime alternative to it. Appreciating Modi for gracefully admitting the mistake and repealing the Acts, the TRS leaders took potshots at the state BJP leaders who they said lacked the culture and dignity the Prime Minister exhibited.
