Acid rain in Hyderabad as K Chandrasekhar Rao takes on PM Narendra Modi

The TRS, rightly interpreting the BJP’s choice of Hyderabad for its national executive as a politically loaded one, decided to go big with its own counter-show.
Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao. (File Photo)
Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao. (File Photo)

HYDERABAD: It was a temperate July day in Hyderabad — never going beyond 30 degrees Celsius — but the earth was searing-hot with rhetoric. Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao took on PM Narendra Modi, who was just a few miles away in the city, daring him to pull down the Telangana government just as the ruling BJP had done in Maharashtra — and promising a “revolution” if that came about.

Modi had landed in Hyderabad in the afternoon to participate in the BJP’s national executive. He headed straight to the venue — HICC, in the city’s IT corridor—in a chopper. The stage there had already seen belligerent words from BJP leaders, as they engaged in political volleys with KCR.

Hyderabad Huddle: PM Narendra Modi and J P Nadda at BJP meet
Hyderabad Huddle: PM Narendra Modi and J P Nadda at BJP meet

The TRS, rightly interpreting the BJP’s choice of Hyderabad for its national executive as a politically loaded one, decided to go big with its own counter-show. Hours before the PM arrived in the city, Chandrasekhar Rao and his minister-son K T Rama Rao organised a grand welcome for Opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha. It rained pink petals, flags and confetti as a convoy carrying Rao and Sinha drove from Begumpet airport to the Jalavihar guest house on Necklace road, trailed by hundreds of bikes.

And then, as KCR addressed his party MPs and MLAs, the barbs flew thick and fast. He called the caravan of BJP leaders “political tourists” and taunted PM Modi about the falling rupee—the lowest in history at present—and asked why he was avoiding talking about what was his pet subject when the UPA was ruling. “Several Union ministers who are here are saying they will topple the TRS government. We are also waiting for it so that we can be free. Later we will bring you down in Delhi. From crisis comes revolution, always,” Rao thundered.

Opposition’s presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha with CM K Chandrashekar Rao. (Photo | PTI)
Opposition’s presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha with CM K Chandrashekar Rao. (Photo | PTI)

At the BJP venue, party orators had already lit up the stage with some fiery words. Referring to the glaring absence of the CM among the dignitaries who welcomed PM Modi, Union minister Smriti Irani called it an insult to the Constitution. “One who hurts the dignity of the Constitution is a dictator. KCR is a dictator,” she said. Another minister, Anurag Thakur, returned KCR’s barb, saying it was the TRS that would turn political tourists in its own state post-elections.

Meanwhile, basking in the attention the TRS was showering on him, Sinha said the country needed leaders like Rao. Referring to the presidential election, Sinha said it wasn’t a battle between two identities (Droupadi Murmu being a tribal) but one between two ideologies.

As the political fisticuffs continued late into the night on Saturday, it will be PM Modi’s turn to be at the centrestage on Sunday. He is all set to address a public meeting in the evening at Parade Grounds in Secunderabad. The BJP promises that will signal “the death-knell” for TRS’s dynastic rule.

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