HYDERABAD: Reminding that at one point in time the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) supremo had said that he would merge his party with the Congress, veteran party leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao “loved one (Congress), and married another (BJP)”, hinting that the pink party president was in an unofficial alliance with the saffron party.
Kharge made these remarks while addressing PCC delegates as part of his campaign for the Congress presidential election at Indira Bhavan here on Saturday. Interacting with PCC delegates, Kharge reminded them how Rao had changed his stance on merging into Congress soon after meeting UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi along with his family.
Slamming the idea of converting the TRS into a national party, Kharge said that many regional parties have done the same but nothing has changed. “Parties like TMC converged into AITMC, and ADMK into AIADMK. However, they failed to win a single seat outside their state. The same thing will happen with TRS as it turned into BRS,” Kharge ridiculed.
Asking the PCC delegates to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him, Kharge said: “Slogans like ‘Kharge tum aage chalo, hum peeche hai’, will not work. Everyone has to work together. My election is not only for me but everyone.”
Later, addressing the press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, Kharge said that Congress delegates have been supporting him to uphold the party’s ideology, fortify the party, and protect constitutional values and democracy.
He said that he would implement the Udaipur declaration if elected as Congress president. Stating that the Congress president election was a democratic process, Kharge wondered how presidents of the BJP were actually elected. “How did Nadda, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh become BJP presidents?” he asked.
He said that if elected, he would continue a relentless fight like current interim president Sonia Gandhi against the Narendra Modi government. In sharp contrast to the welcome accorded to Shashi Tharoor, his main rival, veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge was accorded a rousing reception by the Telangana Congress Committee here on Saturday.