KTR dares Centre to go for snap polls now

Nizamabad: BRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday challenged the BJP to dissolve the Lok Sabha and go for simultaneous elections along with the Telangana state polls. “We are ready to dissolve the Assembly and hold elections if the BJP does so at the Centre,” he said.

Rama Rao was addressing party cadre at Telangana Bhavan, before flying to Nizamabad to lay the foundation stone for the Kala Bharathi auditorium, at Rs 50 crore, and inaugurate a railway underbridge, constructed at Rs 22 crore.

In the run-up to the Union Budget, Rama Rao said the BJP must present a pro-poor and pro-farmer Budget this year. He also called on the Central government to fulfil assurances made to Telangana and allocate funds for the PM Kisan programme.

“Modi should prove his commitment towards Telangana by considering all the requests made by the state government,” he said. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi chants ‘Sab ka sath sab ka vikas’, but it is ‘Sab kuch vakwas’. For the last eight-and-a-half years, the Central government has not sanctioned a single education institution to Telangana.”

Highlighting the alleged shortcomings of the BJP government at the Centre, he said that it failed to accord ‘national’ status for any of the state’s irrigation projects, while also denying a turmeric board for Nizamabad.

“Prior to Narendra Modi, 14 Prime Ministers had borrowed Rs 56 lakh crore in the past 67 years, while Narendra Modi alone incurred a debt of Rs 100 lakh crore in just eight years,” he said.

He said that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was exposing the “opportunistic politics” of the BJP, citing the Centre’s decision to waive Rs 12 lakh crore of corporate loans but being unwilling to extend free power to farmers.

“Under the BJP rule, inflation is up and prices of essential commodities have escalated. Are BJP leaders comparing Modi to God for making people’s life miserable? Taxes on fuel have not increased in Telangana since 2014, whereas the BJP-led Central government increased it indiscriminately,” he said.

Ridiculing the claims of BJP leaders that the Prime Minister had successfully stopped the Russia-Ukraine war, Rama Rao questioned why Modi failed to settle the border issue of Karnataka and Maharashtra, where the BJP was in power.

Rama Rao warned Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind to mind his language as BRS court react equally to his “filthy language.” “We have respect towards your father D. Srinivas and we are sparing you,” he said.