TRS versus BJP show of strength in Telangana
HTC/Agencies
Telangana’s capital Hyderabad witnessed two massive shows of strength on.Saturday. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) commenced its two-day national executive meeting in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) organised a rally in support of Yashwant Sinha -- the Opposition’s candidate for presidential election.
In an obvious attempt to downplay the BJP’s crucial meeting, the TRS accorded an unprecedented reception to Sinha at the Begumpet airport, but stayed away from receiving the Prime Minister at the same airport a few hours later. Modi was received by junior minister Talasani Srinivasa Yadav.
This is the third time in the six months that KCR has avoided receiving the Prime Minister. On February 5, the chief minister stayed from Modi’s visit to Hyderabad to attend the unveiling of Vaishnavaite saint Ramanujacharya’s statue. Again on May 26, KCR left for Bengaluru when Modi came to Hyderabad to attend the 20th foundation day celebrations of Indian School of Business (ISB).
But three hours before the arrival of the Prime Minister, KCR and his son K T Rama Rao, along with other cabinet colleagues and senior TRS leaders, went to the same airport to receive Sinha. Later, the chief minister took the presidential candidate in a huge convoy of vehicles to Jala Vihar on the Necklace Road on the banks of Hussainsagar lake, where a meeting was organised in the honour of Sinha.
Thousands of TRS workers took out a massive rally from the airport to Jala Vihar. The entire stretch of six kilometres passing through the Raj Bhavan Road was painted pink with huge cutouts of Sinha, which dwarfed the hoardings and bill boards erected by the BJP to welcome the delegates to its NEC meeting.
Introducing Sinha to the party cadre at the meeting, the chief minister made an appeal to the electorate of all parties in all states to exercise their “conscience vote” in the presidential election. “In the past, veteran leader V V Giri was also elected as the President of India through a conscience vote exercise by the electorate cutting across their party affiliations,” he recalled.
Reiterating his resolve to bring about a qualitative change in the national politics, KCR took a jibe at Modi, “Modi has grown arrogant and dictatorial. He is pulling down the governments which oppose his rule and suppressing the voice that doesn’t agree with him. He is misusing Constitutional bodies to crush his critics. He thinks he is a permanent PM but in democracy, nobody is permanent.”
Stating that not a single section of the society is happy with the Modi rule, KCR said farmers were agitated, unemployed youths are disturbed and inflation is increasing. “His call to make India a superpower with $ 5 trillion economy has become a joke with rising inflation. In China, there is less talk and more action, therefore, the outcome is its pacing economy. Here all talk, no work, so no outcome,” he said.
Speaking at the meeting later, Sinha termed the election a “battle of ideologies”.
He also launched at attack on the PM, saying that he never believed in “consensus” but only “confrontation.” He said he tried to reach out to Modi over phone after filing his nomination as presidential candidate. However, Sinha said he was informed that the PM was not available and till now there was no response for the call.
Meanwhile, the BJP termed KCR’s absence at the aiport a breach of protocol. “If PM or President arrives at airport, CM of that state should receive them, this is the protocol. Breaking this convention is not right, we should respect the PM, he is the PM of the country, not only BJP. He ( Telangana CM KCR) is scared to face the PM,” BJP MLC N Ramchander Rao said.