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KCR to unveil national plan today at BRS public meeting
For the rally,the BRS chief has invited several like-minded political leaders from a few national political parties to the meeting, with an aim to showcase the party as a “new player” in the national politics to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday will be holding its first public rally in Khammam district of the state, people in the know of matter said on Tuesday.
Arrangements have been put in place for the BRS rally, which is the first one declared by KCR, as the chief minister is popularly called, after his arrival on the national political stage.
For the rally,the BRS chief has invited several like-minded political leaders from a few national political parties to the meeting, with an aim to showcase the party as a “new player” in the national politics to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The BRS president has invited Aam Aadmi Party president and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary D Raja, besides a few other leaders like CPI state secretary K Sambasiva Rao and CPI (M) state secretary T Veerabhadram.
“The three chief ministers and former UP chief minister will be landing in Hyderabad by Tuesday night. They will hold discussions with KCR at Pragati Bhavan on Wednesday morning to work out a strategy to fight against the Narendra Modi-led central government,” senior BRS leader and state finance minister T Harish Rao, while supervising the arrangements for the meeting, told the reporters.
The chief minister will accompany the national leaders to Yadadri temple in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district and from there they are expected to fly in two special helicopters to Khammam, about 200 km away from Hyderabad, to address the rally scheduled between 2 pm and 5 pm, people in the know of the matter said.
According to Rao, the huge public rally will be attended by at least eight lakh people, to be mobilised from different parts of Khammam district, besides border areas of Andhra Pradesh.
“The meeting will be held in about 100 acres, while 20 parking lots are being set up in over 448-acre area. A special stage will be set up for artists and cultural programmes to perform under the direction of MLA Rasamayi Balakishan,” he said.
Interestingly, KCR invited leaders of only a select few national parties for the Khammam rally, though he had been in touch with several other opposition party leaders in the country who had been fighting against the BJP.
According to a BRS leader speaking on anonymity, the Janata Dal (United) president and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, DMK chief-cum-Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin and Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren have not been invited.
“The reason is obvious. All these leaders have been pitching for the Congress to be part of the opposition alliance to fight against the BJP. But in KCR’s scheme of things, the Congress doesn’t fit in, as he is fighting against the party in Telangana,” said political analyst Sriram Karri.
Another interesting aspect is that even leaders of other non-BJP and non-Congress parties like Mamata Banerjee from West Bengal and Naveen Patnaik from Odisha, with whom KCR had talks in the past, have also been kept away from the meeting.
“They have stopped entertaining KCR’s strategies for their own reasons. So, they did not get the invite for the Khammam rally, despite their opposition to the Congress, along with the BJP,” Karri said.
According to the BRS leader quoted above, the chief minister is expected to unveil the national agenda of the BRS at the Khammam rally. “He will project the alternative agenda for the nation, with prime focus on pro-agriculture and pro-labour policies,” the leader said.
“KCR is going to highlight the party’s philosophy based on welfare and development, besides liberal and secular political thought with focus on cooperative federalism in the country,” the BRS leader said.
The BRS chief, while opening his party’s national headquarters in Delhi on December 14, had given the slogan of ‘Ab ki Baar Kisan Sarkar’ (farmers’ government this time) while calling for new economic, environment, water, electricity and women empowerment policies for the nation.
Meanwhile, Telangana BJP president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar took pot shots at KCR for taking the chief ministers of other states to the Yadadri temple ahead of the Khammam rally.
“Temples have become business centres for Kalvakuntla family. Yadadri development is an investment and public contributions to holy Hundi are returns,” Sanjay tweeted. He wondered whether KCR was taking other states’ CMs to showcase Hindu temple as investment opportunity ahead of BRS Khammam meeting.
