Nitin Gadkari
Reuters

Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday described the Congress, the TRS and the TDP as "private limited parties" and made a strong pitch for a change of regime in Telangana.

Addressing an election rally at Uppal here, he claimed that the BJP alone is a democratic party where a small-time worker like him could rise to become its president and a tea seller could become the country's prime minister.

The shipping and road transport minister slammed TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for joining hands with the Congress, a bitter rival in the past, for the December 7 Telangana assembly elections.

Gadkari termed the "Prajakutami" (People's Alliance), the alliance between the Congress, the TDP, the Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) and the CPI as "opportunistic" and "not (based) on convictions". "This alliance was formed only for selfishness...there is no coordination in their viewpoints...under these circumstances...running a government is not a game," he said.

The senior BJP leader said the Congress and the TRS are family parties.

"The Congress is a private limited party of Gandhi family and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is a private limited party of Chandrashekar Rao. They are not democratic parties and similarly, Chandrababu has also made his party a private limited party," Gadkari alleged.

The BJP is a party of workers, he added. A former BJP president, Gadkari said he used to paste posters and make announcements on cycle rickshaws during campaigning.

"My father was not an MLA nor my mother was an MP and a small-time worker like me I got the opportunity to sit on the (BJP president's) chair, which was also occupied by A B Vajpayee once," he said.

He pointed out that Narendra Modi, who used to sell tea, became the country's prime minister.

The Union minister appealed to voters to not think on the lines of caste, creed and religion and asked them to strengthen nationalism, politics of development and bring a change in Telangana by voting the BJP to power.