Regional parties will dictate national politics in future: KCR

Leader of Opposition and BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao said latest reports indicated that regional parties were going to outperform national parties in this elections.

Hyderabad: Indicating a change of power dynamics and alliance partnerships after the Lok Sabha elections, Leader of Opposition and BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao declared that the era of regional parties supporting the national parties was a thing of the past. Post the Lok Sabha polls, national parties would have to support the alliance of regional parties to form a government at the Centre.

Stating a majority of regional parties shared a good rapport and would sit together after the polls when needed to chalk out their future course, he said latest reports indicated that regional parties were going to outperform national parties in this elections.

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“We will be able to dictate terms,” he said in an interview to vernacular news channel ‘Sakshi‘.

Chandrashekhar Rao said the bubble of NDA and the Modi mania had burst and people understood the hollowness of the BJP. He reminded that not a single sector or a section of the society in the country benefited from the Modi government except for corporates. He held the Prime Minister responsible for toppling numerous opposition-ruled State governments including an attempt to dethrone the BRS government here which was foiled. He said Modi was all talk and no substance. Neither NDA nor the INDIA bloc were in a position to get a clear majority to form the next government.

He ruled out the BRS withdrawing its plans for national politics and said the activities would be resumed soon. “It is a temporary break. If not for the Assembly election defeat, we would have contested and easily won 20 MP seats in Maharashtra. We will reorganise all the party committees starting from the village level within a year,” he said.

When asked whether the Assembly defeat was due to arrogance and poor performance of MLAs, the BRS chief minced no words in stating that he took complete responsibility for the party’s defeat. “There could be some anger towards local MLAs, but victory and defeat of the party is my responsibility as the party president. I will not run away from my responsibilities by blaming my party candidates,” he asserted.

Chandrashekhar Rao said Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy could not escape from his arrest and imprisonment in the Vote for Note case where he was caught red-handed. He said if Revanth Reddy, who was trying to cosy up with the BJP by referring Modi as ‘Bade Bhai’, decides to join the BJP, around 30 Congress MLAs were willing to join hands with the BRS.

The former Chief Minister said he was aware of his daughter and MLC K Kavitha’s arrest in advance. Hence, he told her to be bold as she had done nothing wrong. “She is a political victim and will come out clean soon. I have complete faith in our judiciary,” he reiterated, also rubbishing allegations of phonetapping, pointing out that political functionaries had no role to dictate how officials gather intelligence.

On the State government’s allegations against Medigadda barrage of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, he dubbed it a political stunt for votes. He questioned the State government’s inaction to repair the damaged piers despite the National Dam Safety Authority finding fault with it for not taking up the repair works. The Congress would suffer for neglecting the Kaleshwaram project in the Lok Sabha elections, he said.

On his health condition, Chandrashekhar Rao said he was recuperating from his total hip replacement surgery and focusing on the party activities. He said he was enjoying his leisure time by reading books and listening to songs of Kishore Kumar, Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar.