HYDERABAD: TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao apparently wanted to send out a message loud and clear that he was ready to work with anti-Congress and anti-BJP forces when he sent his son and party working president KT Rama Rao to Delhi to attend the ceremony which marked the filing of nomination papers by opposition-backed presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha on Monday.
Though senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was present on the occasion, the TRS wanted to give an impression that it was not rubbing shoulders with the grand old party and that it differed with it on various issues both at the State and the national level.
As he had to sit alongside Rahul Gandhi when Sinha filed his papers, Rama Rao, to dispel any notion that the TRS was nudging closer to the Congress, later said that his party was supporting Sinha, period. “If any other party supported the candidature of Sinha, the TRS has nothing to do with it,” Rama Rao clarified.
Rama Rao also sought to make it clear that no opposition alliance had been formed and that the TRS has not become part of it. “Who told you that we are in the alliance of Opposition parties? It should not be termed as an alliance when we signed the nomination papers of Sinha along with some other parties.
Do not decide on your own and name it an alliance,” he shot back when a reporter asked him if an alliance of opposition parties, including the Congress had taken shape. The TRS working president further clarified that they were supporting the united Opposition candidate only to oppose the dictatorship of BJP.
KCR, KTR have Cong DNA: BJP
Rama Rao also explained that the TRS did not field any candidate in the Presidential election as nominating a TRS candidate would be construed by the people that the pink party was favouring BJP. To prevent any such speculation, the TRS supported the candidature of Sinha. “The TRS would stand by Sinha,” he said. Meawhile, the party leaders ruled out the possibility of the pink party sailing with the “sinking” Congress in future.
Sources said that the TRS’ support to Sinha was only to tell the people that the pink party was against the Narendra Modi government. The Chief Minister decided to support the candidature of Yashwant Sinha after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and NCP leader Sharad Pawar called up Chandrasekhar Rao and requested to support Sinha’s candidature, sources said. While terming the KTR’s presence at Sinha’s nomination as “drama”, TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy said that both the BJP and the TRS were “todu dongalu” (twin thieves).
If KCR was sincere he should announce an action plan against Agnipath and organise protests during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the city. He should convene the session of the legislature and adopt a resolution against Agnipath,” he said. BJP executive committee member and former MLC N Ramchander Rao said that although they had been shadow boxing all these years, there was nothing new in Congress and TRS working together.
They had done the same even during the Karnataka election to defeat BS Yediyurappa by supporting Janata Dal, he said. “It is an indication that Congress and TRS will go together in the coming Assembly election. Hence, it is proved that KCR and KTR have Congress DNA,” he said.
BJP OBC Morcha president and Rajya Sabha MP K Laxman said: “The dynastic parties are coming under one umbrella. KCR claims that he will form a non-Congress and non- BJP front. But his true colours have come out now. It is clear that BJP is the only alternative in Telangana.”