TRS braces for showdown with BJP in Parliament

Hyderabad: The TRS appeared to be bracing for a showdown with the BJP during Parliament Session, set to begin from March 5.

TRS chief and CM Chandrasekhar Rao, upset with BJP over the Centre neglecting TS representations in the recent Union Budget, had already launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government at public meetings in Karimnagar and Adilabad recently.

The CM called a meeting with the party’s Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members on Saturday to devise a strategy to be adopted in Parliament to bring pressure on the NDA government over long-pending demands of the state government.

The TRS, which adopted a soft stand towards BJP for the past four years, changed stance all of a sudden with the CM and his ministers lashing out at Mr Modi and the BJP. In return, BJP leaders burnt the CM in effigy to protest against unsavoury remarks against Mr Modi.

At public meetings, Mr Rao announced that TRS would not sit quiet on pen-ding issues and party MPs would wage a war in Parl-iament to achieve the de-mands of the TS government.

Mr Rao was unhappy wi-th the Prime Minister for not heeding to the request of the TS government to link NREGA with agriculture even after submitting 20 representations during the last four years.

He was also upset at Cen-tre not increasing MSP for agriculture produce and not sanctioning funds to Mission Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya as recommended by Niti Aayog and also not according national status to the Kaleswaram project.

The CM also wanted party MPs to raise the issue of the Centre not approving 12 per cent quota for Muslims even after the TS Legislature passed the Act nearly a year ago and referred it for Central approval.

The TRS was the first to extend support to the PM’s initiatives of demonetisation and GST, besides backing the President and Vice-President candidates fielded by NDA.

“Despite all this, there has been no corresponding support from the NDA government on the issues raised by TRS government. We have waited patiently for four years. The time has come to fight the Centre to achieve our long-pending demands,” said K. Kavitha, the Nizamabad MP.