HYDERABAD: “Kavitha? What Kavitha? We don’t even want KCR if he wants to join the BJP. He has been hanging around Delhi hoping for someone to call him and nobody did.”
That was Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Wednesday, laughing off Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s reported comments on Tuesday on the BJP’s alleged attempts to lure his daughter Kavitha to join the opposition party.
During an informal chat with reporters at the BJP headquarters in the city, Sanjay said, “KCR will use anyone, including his daughter and others in his family, to hang on to power.”
Sanjay also said the Chief Minister will call for early polls to the state Assembly and said that the BJP was ready to face polls at any time.
“Every time the Chief Minister says something, he does the opposite. Yesterday, he said elections will be held on schedule and there will be no early polls in Telangana. This means he will definitely go for early polls,” Sanjay said.
Sanjay, reacting to yet another reported comment by Chandrashekar Rao that those trying to lure TRS leaders to their parties should be ‘beaten with slippers’, said, “It is for KCR to say how people should treat his party, which lured 37 MLAs into the TRS. We have a policy that anyone who wants to join must resign their position before coming into BJP.”
He said the BJP’s plans are ready for the state elections. Refusing to divulge any details of these plans, Sanjay restricted himself to saying: “Our target is to get one lakh votes in every constituency. The BJP will contest on its own, will win on its own, and form a government in Telangana on its own.”
He said that in Tuesday’s meeting, one expected the Chief Minister to talk to his party leaders about promises made and not kept, and pressing problems faced by the people.
“KCR did not talk about any of these. And the TRS MLAs, of course, had no spine to speak up. All he said was that the TRS MLAs were being watched closely, thus proving that their every activity is being monitored. All he told them in the end was that no matter what the means, their only goal should be to win again,” Sanjay said.
“This level of monitoring is only possible because the Telangana government purchased Israeli technology to tap phones,” he said.
Answering a question, Sanjay said the Chief Minister of the neighbouring state attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s programme and listed out Andhra Pradesh’s requirements. “Here, KCR runs away from Modi. Why is the Telangana Chief Minister hiding from the Prime Minister?” Sanjay asked.
