BRS to win 12-14 MP seats, play key role in national politics: KCR

Stating that regional parties would rule the country after the Lok Sabha polls, K Chandrashekhar Rao hinted at the BRS playing a key role in national politics.

Hyderabad: Hours before the high-octane Lok Sabha poll campaign ended on Saturday, Leader of Opposition and BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao expressed confidence that the BRS would win 12 to 14 seats in Telangana. Stating that regional parties would rule the country after the Lok Sabha polls, he hinted at the BRS playing a key role in national politics.

“With my experience, I can say that regional parties are going to dictate terms and rule the country. We will form a strong alliance where national parties have to come forward and support us,” he said at a press conference at Telangana Bhavan here.

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Elaborating further, Chandrashekhar Rao said while the BJP would get one or none in Telangana, while in the entire South India, the saffron party might win around 10 out of 130 seats. He dubbed the BJP’s “Ab ki baar, 400 paar” as trash and asserted that the party was unlikely to win more than 220 seats in the Lok Sabha this time. He attributed this realisation as the reason for Prime Minister Narendra Modi trying to invoke Muslims, reservations and other communal statements out of frustration during his poll rallies.

“The BJP graph is dipping in North India as well. The Congress is also in a bad shape. The Lok Sabha results will shock everyone as regional parties will emerge as major political forces to form the government,” he said, stating after the BRS, the BJP would be in a distant second position in Telangana, while the Congress would be relegated to third position in nine of 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State.

The BRS supremo ruled out any doubts with regards to his role in national politics and affirmed that all efforts to create an alternative political force at the national level were very much alive. After the Lok Sabha elections, he would resume his efforts to align like-minded regional political parties with whom he was already in touch. Responding to a question, he revealed that BRS leaders from Maharashtra were asking him to campaign on their behalf in Maharashtra during the next Assembly elections.

Stating that the Congress was incompetent and that the BJP was interested only in unrest to win elections, the former Chief Minister said if the BRS won more MP seats, it would fight to protect the interests of people of Telangana. The BJP had done no good for the nation, except for stoking communal sentiments and primordial emotions of the people for political gain. He reminded that farmers, workers, the poor and no other section benefited under the BJP rule.

Terming Modi the worst Prime Minister in the history of the country who gave over 150 slogans, but achieved none, he reminded that under the Modi government, India’s GDP tumbled down from 6.8 per cent between 2004-14 to 5.8 per cent over last 10 years.

“No person from the poor or the marginalised sections benefited from the Modi government. The BJP had only promoted communal hatred and religious fanatism. Modi speaks a lot about “Desham Kosam, Dharmam Kosam”, but has not established a Sanskrit University till date,” he pointed out.

Referring to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s comments that Hyderabad should be made the second capital of the country, Chandrashekhar Rao said Hyderabad belonged to Telangana and scope would not be given for such a move. Kharge’s remarks only proved his argument that both national parties would only harm Telangana’s interests, he said.

Refuting rumours that the friendship between the BRS and the AIMIM was severed, he said the BRS would oppose any move to remove existing reservations. He ridiculed Modi’s remarks that the BRS approached him for alliance, stating that his party was secular and that Modi was known to make twisted statements for political benefits.

The BRS chief clarified that there would be no change in the name of the party from BRS to TRS. He would be in the Assembly from the next session and rattle up the government. He likened leaders defecting from the BRS to sunflowers, calling them as “power flowers” who join the ruling party for their personal benefits. The strength of the BRS with over 60 lakh members was still intact.

On the Delhi excise policy case against MLC K Kavitha, Chandrashekhar Rao reiterated that the case was fabricated by Modi as part of his witchhunting targeting the BRS, which sent the police to arrest BJP leader BL Santosh for attempting to topple the then BRS government. He affirmed that the case would boomerang for the BJP and Kavitha would come out clean.

‘In race for PM’

BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao stated that he was very much in the race for the Prime Minister’s post, if given an opportunity. “Definitely, why not? Only a fool would let go such an opportunity and I am not a fool,” he said.

He stated that Rajya Sabha MP KR Suresh Reddy would be the BRS party parliamentary leader in the wake of K Keshava Rao leaving the party. He would write to the Rajya Sabha Chairman in this regard. Suresh Reddy would be the BRS strongman in Delhi, he said.