Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah has ruled out all possibilities of getting into a pre-poll alliance with K Chandrasekhar Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Saturday, September 16.
Shah added that the TRS owes an explanation to the people of Telangana for going into polls early and adding an extra expenditure for the people.
Amit Shah was in Hyderabad on Saturday to launch BJP's election campaign in the state. He held a press conference at the BJP office in Nampally in Hyderabad and then attended a public meeting in Mahabubnagar later in the day.
During his address, the BJP chief challenged KCR to name a Dalit chief minister for the state. Shah was referring to the promise Rao had made during his 2014 elections saying that if the TRS were elected, there would be a Dalit CM. However, Rao took the post of the Chief Minister after TRS won the elections.
"TRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) had promised before 2014 elections that a Dalit will be made the Chief Minister but when TRS won the elections, he himself became the Chief Minister of Telangana...I want to ask KCR, will you fulfil this promise at least this time or will make your son as the Chief Minister?" Shah was quoted as saying by The Hindu.
Shah also questioned the early elections that are to be held in the state. He said "Rao and TRS have forced a small state to bear the expenditure of two elections. BJP believes that TRS has put an additional burden of crores of rupees on people to further its political interests," reports FirstPost.
He added, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed 'one nation, one election'. (Caretaker CM) Chandrasekhar Rao had also supported it initially...I want to ask a straight question to the ruling party (TRS) and the chief minister. Why are you burdening the people with so much of expenditure (due to polls)? What is the reason for advancing the election by nine months?"
The Telangana Legislative Assembly elections were not to be held for another nine months. However, the elections will now be held by the end of this year.
Amit Shah accused TRS of electoral politics and slammed the ruling state government for passing the resolution of 12 percent reservation for Muslims and sending it to the Centre for approval.
Shah also cleared any possible doubts regarding a pre-election alliance between the BJP and TRS. He said that when Prime Minister Modi praised the TRS chief KCR in the parliament, it was under a different context and does not mean there will be any understanding or political tie-up between them.
He added that TRS and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) were engaged in "shadow boxing," reports The News Minute.
"If the TRS government comes back to power, it will continue its politics of appeasement," Shah said.
Shah reminded the public that the BJP government gave the state of Telangana nearly 2.3 lakh crore in the last four years while Congress gave only Rs 15,000 crore under its regime.
