‘PM Modi will campaign against KCR’

BJP president Amit Shah makes it clear that his party has no secret understanding with the TRS.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will vigorously campaign against Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao after the election schedule for the Assembly was announced, BJP national president Amit Shah said here on Saturday. Shah made it clear that the BJP has no truck with the ruling TRS and would fight the polls with all seriousness. BJP would contest all 119 Assembly seats here.

Shah, who came to launch the BJP’s election campaign from Mahabubnagar, 110 km from here, made it clear that his party had no truck or secret understanding with TRS in Telangana and claimed that people would vote for his party based on the achievements of the Modi-led NDA government at the Centre in the last four-and-a-half years.

“We are the alternative to TRS and KCR in Telangana and we will provide the same this time. We are contesting elections with full force and emerge victorious too,” he told a media conference at the BJP office in Hyderabad earlier. Replying to a question, Shah said that the PM would definitely tour the state once campaign picks up after the election schedule was announced.

The BJP president rubbished speculation that KCR was backed by the PM and that the BJP would go soft on him in the coming Assembly elections. “You all know he (KCR) is in an alliance with AIMIM (All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen), which is nothing but appeasement of Muslims. How can we support someone who has a pact with communal forces?” Shah said. The BJP president said that the BJP government at the Centre had done for Telangana in the last four years more than what the Congress-led UPA government had done over a decade. “We have given Rs 16,370 crore in the last four years and are committed to giving more. The state has seen unprecedented growth, thanks to the Centre’s help,” Shah said. Shah, after arriving here from Delhi, closeted with senior BJP leaders and told them to fan out in the state and highlight the achievements of the Modi government since 2014. Shah asked all the seniors to contest in the polls and told them that Lok Sabha tickets would be distributed to candidates based on their performance in the Assembly elections.