Modi, K Chandrashekhar Rao spring surprises on cadre

Hyderabad: Camaraderie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao at a public meeting in Gajwel on Sunday — which happens to be the Friendship Day — has set off speculation in both the BJP and the TRS about the political realignment in the state.

While leaders showering praise on each other at a public meeting is quite common, the way both the leaders complimented and endorsed each other for providing “effective and good governance” raised speculations of a tie-up between both the parties in the coming days.

The strained relations between the BJP and the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh over the Special Category State status issue after the recent developments in parliament are being cited as the reason for a possible friendship between the TRS and the BJP in Telangana.

Mr Rao’s comments in the public meeting certifying the Modi government as the first corruption-free government in the country and that Mr Modi has been extending full assistance to the Telangana government in all its programmes have surprised several TRS leaders.

This runs counter to the TRS’ criticism of the Modi government for ignoring Telangana in all sectors. The ruling party in Telangana has been attacking the BJP government in all the elections starting from GHMC to all the recent bypolls to Assembly and parliament.

When BJP president Amit Shah — during a recent meeting in Nalg-onda — claimed that the Centre had granted Rs 95,000 crore to Telangana, the TRS leadership had lashed out at him for making ‘false’ statements.

However, in the backdrop of the Chief Minister heaping praise on Mr Modi, the TRS leaders would no longer be in a position to attack the Modi government in future for discriminating against Telangana.

Discomfiture, however, is not confined to the TRS leaders. The BJP state leadership is surprised by Mr Modi certifying the TRS government of working effectively for fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the people.

The BJP, which hopes to grow as an alternative to the ruling TRS, has been accusing the KCR government of failing on all fronts in its two years.

While Mr Rao said he was seeing for the first time a “non-corrupt government” at the Centre in his 40-year political career, Mr Modi said Telangana achieved good results in these two years in fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of people.

The Chief Minister even went on to say that Mr Modi encouraged him to fight for Telangana and the new state was possible because of the cooperation of the BJP. “When I met him for the first time at a public meeting in 2009 in Punjab, Narendra Modi, as the Gujarat Chief Minister, encouraged me to fight for Telangana statehood. And Telangana state was achieved with the support of the BJP,” Mr Rao remarked.