Hyderabad: The BJP President Amit Shah told RSS party leaders that it was TS Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao who was maintaining cordial relations with Centre and not the other way round. Mr Shah clarified this to TS BJP leaders who expressed apprehensions that the Centre appeared to have a soft corner for Mr Rao while they are fighting with the TRS in the state According to sources, TS BJP leaders told Mr Shah that there were speculations that the TRS and the BJP had secret ties and the frequent meetings of Mr Rao with Prime Minister Narendra Modi were supporting these speculations.
The BJP leaders met Mr Shah at Shamshabad airport, where he had arrived on Thursday night en-route Mantrayalam for the RSS meeting on Friday. According to sources, Mr Shah told the party leaders that “future requirements” could not be assessed especially after AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had distanced himself from the BJP. Mr Shah told TS BJP president K. Laxman, BJP Assembly floor leader G. Kishan Reddy, and former Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya: “We cannot see those who are maintaining cordial relations with the Centre as opponents. KCR is maintaining good relations with the Centre, one cannot see the state’s relations with the Centre from a political angle.”
Mr Shah told the BJP leaders that the Telangana Assembly elections could be held early. “If KCR wants to dissolve the Assembly we cannot stop him. The Election Commission will take care of the elections issue if KCR dissolves the Assembly,” Mr Shah told the leaders.
“We cannot say when the Election Commission will hold the elections. Be prepared to face the elections and take steps to strengthen the party at grassroot level,” Mr Shah told the leaders. A TS BJP leader, who was worried over the party’s stand towards Mr Rao at the national level, said, “When the national leadership has a soft corner towards KCR, there will be no use if we are fighting the TRS at the state level.” He said they had taken this issue to the notice of the national leadership, but to no avail. Another BJP leader said they were facing a peculiar problem politically in Telangana state due to the stand of the national leadership.
