If there is a common thread in campaign theme of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the BJP in the December seven Assembly polls, it's certainly their unsparing attack on the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu.
The pre-poll pact of TDP, the ruling party of the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, and the Congress for election to the 119-member Telangana house, has also come under fire by the TRS and BJP, which have repeatedly dubbed it "unholy."
Afterall, how can TDP, a party formed in 1982 by actor-turned-politician NTR on an anti-Congress plank and to uphold Telugu self-respect in 1982, join hands with the very outfit, they ask.
TRS and BJP leaders allege that if the Congress-TDP alliance comes to power in Telangana, it would be Naidu who would be calling the shots from the Andhra Pradesh capital of Amaravati. Congress and TDP leaders strongly counter their arguments, saying they joined forces to fight the "divisive and destructive politics" of the BJP and end the "misrule" of the TRS government, which let all sections of people down with its "false promises."
"Congress is sold out to TDP," Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao claimed, and alleged that Telangana Congress was being run by Naidu. "Candidates for the Congress and TDP alliance is being dictated by Naidu.
He seems to be the chief sponsor of Telangana Congress Party both financially and also administratively," he told PTI. If there is a possibility of formation of government under Congress, then the de-facto CM will be in Andhra Pradesh, not in Telangana.
And Chandrababu Naidu will be running Telangana through remote control with his de-facto powers, Rao alleged. TDP spokesperson Lanka Dinakar reminded the TRS that it had an alliance with TDP in the 2009 elections in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
TDP was formed in Hyderabad, now capital of Telangana, he recalled. Describing as 'political gimmick' the TRS contention that Naidu opposed irrigation projects in Telangana, Dinakar said the K Chandrasekhar Rao government, instead, should tell people what development and welfare measures they initiated during their tenure.
He claimed that there has been no problem between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on sharing of water resources, and charged the BJP-led NDA with delaying resolution of procedural issues for political gains. On TRS-BJP allegation that Naidu would 'control' Telangana affairs if Congress-TDP alliance comes to power, Dinakar dismissed it as 'inconceivable.'
Those who make such a charge have no respect for federal spirit, constitution and democratic values, he said. Senior Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy, also former Vice-Chairman of National Disaster Management Authority, defended the Congress-TDP electoral pact, saying the alliance was a 'compulsion' and need of the hour.
On charges that Naidu was putting hurdles on Telangana irrigation projects, Reddy, son of former Chief Minister Marri Chenna Reddy, told PTI that Telangana people have been opposing AP's Polavaram project. "These are all things which were different situation altogether.
When we (Congress-TDP) come together (to form Government), there will be a common agenda, there will be a common understanding, what happened in the past cannot prevent us from moving ahead. We will come out with common agenda. If any aberration of the past, will not be repeated," he said.
Reddy, Chairman of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee's Election Commission Coordination Committee, said the BJP is panicky about the moves made in the last few days by Naidu to bring together all forces opposed to the BJP.
"The alliance is to save the people from misrule.... falsehood...promises, people of all sections feel let down," he said. "It's a compulsion and need of the hour. It's to fight divisive and destructive politics (of the BJP)." TRS leader K T Rama Rao, who is son of caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, said "By chance, if they (Congress-TDP alliance) win the elections, decisions pertaining to Telangana will be made in Amaravati".
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