HYDERABAD: Making his first foray outside Telangana after rechristening TRS as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), party supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday appointed former IAS officer Thota Chandrasekhar Rao as the AP State unit president. Declaring that ‘BRS is for India’, Rao said that if voted to power, he would provide free power to all the farmers in the country in two years.
“We will provide free power to all farmers, which costs around Rs 1.45 lakh crore per year. We will also implement Telangana’s Dalit Bandhu for 25 lakh SC families in the country per year, which costs around Rs 2.5 lakh crore,” he announced. Under Dalit Bandhu, each SC family will be provided Rs 10 lakh for self-employment and the beneficiary need not repay the money.
Several leaders from AP including Thota Chandrasekhar, former minister Ravela Kishore Babu and former IRS officer Chintala Parthasarathi and others joined BRS. Welcoming them into the party, Chandrasekhar Rao touched upon various issues that were plaguing the country.
He, however, did not highlight any pressing issues of AP. In a bid to strike a chord with the people of the neighbouring State, he said that he would not allow the privatisation of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP). “The policy of the Narendra Modi government is privatisation. The policy of the BRS is nationalisation. Even if Modi privatises VSP, BRS, if voted to power, will nationalise it again,” Rao thundered.
Stating that the expansion of BRS would be intensified further after Sankranti, Rao said: “Your AP BRS office will witness hectic activity after the festival”. Even some sitting MLAs in Andhra Pradesh too were keen to join the party, he claimed.
The BRS chief also disclosed his plans to expand the party across the country. “BRS committees will be formed in all 6.64 lakh villages in the country. The party will be expanded simultaneously in all 4,123 Assembly segments in the country.”
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Chandrasekhar Rao said that the available water in the country was 70,000 tmcft and it was sufficient to irrigation 41 crore acres. The installed power capacity was 4.10 lakh MW and the country’s utilisation never crossed 2.10 lakh MW.
“This is because the country lost institutional approach and planning. Why the farmers of the country are taking their lives, when water and power is available? The BRS will find a solution to these problems. The BRS is not meant for one area, one State or for one caste or one religion,” Rao asserted.
“I have no doubt, when we explain these things to the people, India will definitely react,” Rao said.
He said that winning the election was not the only agenda of BRS. “Election is a process, which comes and goes. But, the parties and leaders are winning the elections and later the aspirations and purpose of the people are being defeated. The people should win in the elections. There is a dire need for a change in the country. BRS will try for the qualitative change in the country,” Rao explained and added that BRS was for noble ideals, not for cheap politics.
“We will appoint women, youth and other committees. We will also organise training classes for the leaders. Several intellectuals will deliver lectures,” Rao said while adding that the present policy-makers were like ‘jack of all trades and master of none’, which was why the country was backward.
He explained with examples, how China, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan progressed with limited resources and how India remained underdeveloped in spite of the availability of abundant natural resources.
He attacked the national parties for adopting short-cut methods like using money, caste, religion and others to win elections. Despite the Make-in-India rhetoric, the county was importing even national flags from China, Rao lamented. Despite a large extent of arable lands, the country was importing oil palm and red gram, he said.