KCR meets Nitish, Tejashwi in Bihar, launches attack on BJP | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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KCR meets Nitish, Tejashwi in Bihar, launches attack on BJP

By, Patna
Sep 01, 2022 01:22 AM IST

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR, on Wednesday supported Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s call for a united opposition ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections to ensure a “Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-mukt Bharat”.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR, on Wednesday supported Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s call for a united opposition ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections to ensure a “Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-mukt Bharat”.

Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, and deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav in Patna. (PTI)
Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, and deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav in Patna. (PTI)

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief also said the opposition’s choice of prime ministerial candidate would be decided unanimously by all stakeholders at an appropriate time.

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“The first attempt is to create a larger alliance as there is a huge danger to the nation from the BJP,” Rao, who was on a day’s visit to the state and met his Bihar counterpart, said.

Also read: TRS to play lead role to drive away BJP from power, says KCR

The alliance of opposition parties will not carry any past baggage but will learn from mistakes and make necessary amendments, he added.

KCR’s visit to the state came days after Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) split with the BJP for a second time to re-align with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) — the first was in 2013 when the party exited after 17 years in the NDA.

Flanked by Nitish and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, KCR lashed out at the Modi government for its “faulty policies”.

“The country knows the capacity, capability and policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he has spent more than 80% of his two terms pushing all sectors in disarray. Just by fanning communal hatred and rhetoric, the country can head nowhere.”

India has the potential of becoming the best and a strong economic power but is being misled in the name of the “Gujarat model, which is actually a flop model”, KCR alleged. The model, he added, “shows negative indicators on all important parameters of human development, power crisis, unbridled privatisation and poor state of farmers”, he said.

“India does not need that model. Till 1980, China had its gross domestic product (GDP) lower than India and it was endowed with much less than what we have. But China today is a $16 trillion economy, while we continue to struggle around $3 trillion,” the Telangana chief minister said.

“It is a matter of shame. India is barely able to utilise 20% of river water as there is no plan. States are struggling for power. The value of the rupee is continuously falling and India’s debt is increasing,” he added.

Also read: Telangana’s KCR hands over cheques to families of soldiers, workers in Bihar

The TRS chief alleged the BJP government at the Centre was taking the entire country for a ride. “Imagine the farmers agitating for 13 months and even after an apology from the Prime Minister, they remain unconvinced,” he said, referring to protests over the now-withdrawn three agricultural bills.

“They (Centre) are just trying to frighten those who can get frightened and in the process, undermine the apex agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax,” he added.

Opposition parties have often accused the Centre of misusing central agencies to harass opposition leaders and further its political agenda.

KCR also ridiculed Modi for having uttered “Ab ki baar Trump sarkaar” during a visit to the US many years ago, calling it a “diplomatic blunder”.

KCR has been rallying opposition forces against the BJP ahead of the prime ministerial election. As part of his efforts to unite various political parties for a third political alternative against the saffron party and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), he has been meeting chiefs of various regional parties since last year.

Asked who would be the opposition’s prime ministerial candidate in the 2024 elections, the TRS chief said it would be decided after consultations with opposition parties who come together.

“There are many leaders like me in the opposition and all will decide how to go forward. Let us first sit together. A Brahmin is needed to perform marriage. We will do that. I am no one to say who will be the opposition’s face at this stage,” he said.

Nitish on August 12 had reiterated that he was not in the race to become the prime minister but is working to play a “positive” role in forging opposition unity against the BJP-led NDA at the Centre.

Reacting to KCR’s allegations, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said: “Like Nitish, KCR’s graph is also falling rapidly. The two want to unite in the hope of giving a government which the people will never accept.”

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Arun Kumar is Senior Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times. He has spent two-and-half decades covering Bihar, including politics, educational and social issues.

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