‘Ab ki baar, kisan sarkar’, chants KCR

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao unveiled the newly-launched Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) with the campaign slogan ‘Ab ki baar, kisan sarkar’, signalling the future policy priorities of his party at the national level and ratcheting up the adrenaline at the party headquarters on Friday.

Addressing party leaders at Telangana Bhavan, the BRS headquarters, after signing papers sent by the Election Commission renaming the TRS, Rao said the BRS' political innings would begin from Karnataka where Assembly polls were due in April-May next. The CM asserted that the BRS flag would flutter triumphantly from the Red Fort in Delhi, indicating that the newly launched pro-farmer party would take over the seat of power at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Rao said that BRS would open its New Delhi office on December 14 and begin full-scale operations. He exhorted ministers, party MPs, MLAs and MLCs and other leaders to reach the country’s capital by December 13 and participate in the BRS office inaugural ceremony in big numbers. The CM announced that on December 14 he would address a media conference in New Delhi and explain to the people of the nation the party’s national plans and the roadmap ahead.

The CM's comment on the Karnataka elections caused confusion in party and political circles. At one point, the CM declared that the BRS would set foot in Karnataka. Later, he said that BRS leaders would join hands with the JD(S) in Karnataka and ensure that JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, who was present at the ceremony, would become the next  CM of that state.

"As he (Kumaraswamy) went back from the last meeting from Telangana to Karnataka two months ago, he was kind enough to announce to the people of Karnataka that we are going to implement all the government schemes of Telangana. We will come to Karnataka and explain to the people Rythu Bandhu, Dalit Bandhu, Mission Bhagiratha and other schemes being implemented in Telangana,” Rao said.

“We will stand by you (Kumaraswamy) and we will see you as future Chief Minister of Karnataka with God's blessings. We promise you that we all will come and join your war in your state.  BRS will also establish its roots in Karnataka and they will follow you,” Rao said.

He said t BRS would formulate new policies covering agriculture, economy, environment, irrigation and drinking water, power and women empowerment, among others. He stated that, in contrast to developed nations like the US and China, India had abundant resources but over the past 75 years, successive governments had failed to take advantage of them, leaving the country without sufficient power, drinking water or irrigation.

"In a democracy, people should be the ultimate winners, not political parties. The country urgently needs new policies. There should be no more water wars between states," he said.

The BRS would strive to bring a qualitative change in national politics and in governance to ensure all round development of the country by adopting 'Telangana model of development and welfare schemes' and extend the Telangana schemes to the entire country, he said.