KCR wanted to invite PM to the Kaleswaram irrigation project’s inauguration.
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) stayed away from the Niti Aayog meeting in Delhi on Saturday, after he failed to get an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during this time. KCR’s absence from the Niti Aayog meeting, the first after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power after the general elections, assumes political significance.
Though KCR’s decision to keep away from the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister has nothing to do with the stance of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who, too, stayed away from it, the move reflects the frosty ties between the Telangana CM and the BJP-led Centre for some time. KCR deputed his Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi to the Niti Aayog event.
KCR, in fact, has been waiting to meet the Prime Minister to invite him to the inauguration of the Kaleswaram irrigation project built on Godavari river, now planned on 21 June. KCR placed a request with the PMO to get an appointment with Modi so that the latter can be the chief guest at the event which would also be attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Andhra Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
However, there was no response from the PMO to the CM office till date. KCR initially wanted to go to the Niti Aayog meeting, if the PM gave him time a day before or after 15 June. Efforts made by the CMO to get the PM’s time on Sunday, too, didn’t yield results, till Friday night. Disappointed over it, KCR altogether cancelled his Delhi tour.
However, KCR on Friday went to Mumbai to invite Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao and Chief Minister Fadnavis to the project inauguration. KCR will also be going to Vijayawada on Monday to invite AP Chief Minister Jagan too. Now that 21 June has been fixed for the commissioning of the Kaleswaram project, that cost around Rs 50,000 crore, the PM might not attend to it due to paucity of time.
Sources in the CMO have described the launch of the project involving several lift schemes needing around 7,000 MW of power, as an event to be witnessed by three CMs—of Telangana, Maharashtra and Andhra—and two Governors—Narasimhan and Vidyasagar Rao. Maharashtra’s cooperation is a vital part of the project as a few hundred acres of its lands are submerged in it.
KCR’s absence at the Niti Aayog meeting, marking the beginning of the second term of PM Modi, will not go unnoticed by political observers. As KCR too came to power for a second term in Telangana six months ago, the meeting would have been an excellent platform to project the financial needs of the newly carved out state in the coming years.
KCR has been urging the Centre to treat Kaleswaram as a national project on par with the Polavaram project, built on the same Godavari river downstream in Andhra Pradesh. The Kaleswaram project is expected to irrigate 38 lakh acres, including 18 lakh acres of new ayacut. KCR’s absence at the Niti Aayog meeting is contrasted with the presence of his Andhra counterpart, Jagan who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday and made a presentation at the Niti Aayog meeting, seeking special category status to his state, a long pending demand since 2014. Opposition BJP lashed out at KCR for missing the chance to project Telangana’s demands before the PM and the Niti.
A source close to KCR told this newspaper on Saturday that they were still hopeful of the PM’s appointment in the next few days, but admitted that there was little chance of the latter making it to the inaugural.
“This is the tragic part of our country’s politics, the PM cannot give time to a CM even for a national cause,” remarked the source, underlining the not-so-friendly terms between KCR and BJP.
KCR, too, admitted the same while speaking to his newly elected Lok Sabha members in Hyderabad on Thursday. “We are neither friends nor enemies with the BJP. They don’t need our support as they have sufficient strength in the Lok Sabha, so expect them to be lukewarm to our demands or requests,” KCR told his MPs.
KCR is cut up with BJP candidates defeating his daughter and sitting MP Kavitha in Nizamabad and his trusted aide B. Vinod Kumar in Karimnagar Lok Sabha seats by the recent elections. TRS local leaders told the CM that these two important sitting MPs were defeated by BJP as the party had a secret pact with local Congress leaders.
KCR is also unhappy with BJP’s Telangana unit president K. Laxman, after a meeting with Amit Shah in Delhi on Friday, declaring that their party would definitely come to power in the state in 2023.
“Now our focus is on Telangana and we will make every effort to capture power from TRS,” Laxman said. Straws in the wind indicate a widening gap between the TRS and BJP in the coming days.