KCR dismisses rumours, will fight 2019 polls alone

Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is all set to sound poll bugle for the 2019 general elections at the party’s 17th plenary to be held at Kompally on the city outskirts on Friday.

Mr Rao most likely would utilise the opportunity to convey that a population of over 1.50 crore people in Telangana is already being benefitted by various welfare schemes of his government and will cross the two crore mark with the launching of Rythu Bandhu scheme on May 10.

The scheme, the first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, launched by TRS government to give Rs 8,000 per acre financial assistance to over 70 lakh farmers in the State from May 10 to 17, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, economic status, extend of land owned, will hog the limelight in the plenary.

TRS believes the scheme would be enough to enable it to sweep the 2019 polls hands down, with sweeping agrarian support.

Nearly 15,000 party leaders from each of the total 119 Assembly constituencies have been invited for the meeting. Mr Rao also wants to send a clear signal that the TRS would fight the elections in 2019 alone without entering into any pre-poll alliance with any party except having ‘friendly contests’ with the MIM in the city to dispel recent speculations that the ruling party may have tactical understanding with BJP to defeat Congress.

The party plenary assumes greater significance this year with Mr Rao announcing his plans to focus on national politics and float a Federal Front before the 2019 polls.

IT minister and son of Chief Minister, K T Rama Rao said, “This plenary holds greater importance for us as we would be discussing on national politics for the first time.

The plenary will debate on our party chief’s plans to float an alternative front at the national level against both national parties, the BJP and Congress, which have failed miserably in the past 70 years. We expect the plenary to decide the future course of politics at the national level.”

The TRS high command and party cadre strongly believe that Rythu Bandhu scheme distributing Rs 12,000 crore to 70 lakh farmers would be a ‘game changer’ before the 2019 elections and help TRS retain power.

Next in the priority list is the posse of irrigation projects on which the TRS government is spending over Rs 1.50 lakh crore. Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao said, “The Plenary will discuss the Kaleshwaram  project, which will be completed this year.”