‘KCR changed after I refused him entry into NDA’: PM Modi’s startling claim in poll-bound Telangana

Tearing into the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and its leader and Telangana Chief Minister KCR, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the BRS chief had wanted to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) soon after the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections.

The Prime Minister was addressing a rally in Telangana when he made the revelation.

“When the BJP won 48 seats in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, KCR needed support. Before this election, he used to welcome me at the airport, but later suddenly he stopped doing so. After the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, KCR came to meet me in Delhi and said that he wanted to join NDA. He also asked me to extend support to him. I told him (KCR) that due to his deeds Modi cannot be associated with him…,” PM Modi told the gathering.

“I refused him entry into NDA… I refused. I said, ‘we will not cheat people of Telangana,” the Prime Minister declared in his trademark fashion to the crowd.

The BRS chief (formerly known as the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti or TRS) has been known to be a very vocal critic of not only the Prime Minister but also of the ruling NDA. He had earlier even tried to form a Third Front comprising of like-minded political parties to take on the BJP at the Centre, but despite meeting and holding talks with opposition leaders, KCR’s attempts to set up an alternative to the BJP did not see the light of day.

Telangana is among the states headed for assembly elections later this year and one where the BJP is trying hard to make inroads into KCR’s home turf

The Prime Minister – whose party won a solitary seat in the 2018 Telangana election and does not boast of a government in South India — said his refusal angered and “changed” KCR, whom he also accused of corruption and nepotism in a scathing attack in Nizamabad, about 180 km from state capital Hyderabad.

Earlier in the day, PM Modi laid the foundation stone for multiple development projects worth more than Rs 8000 crores in important sectors like power, rail and health in Nizamabad, Telangana.

The projects include the dedication of 800 MW unit of phase 1 of Telangana Super Thermal Power Project of NTPC, rail projects including the new Railway Line connecting Manoharabad and Siddipet; and the electrification project between Dharmabad-Manoharabad and Mahabubnagar-Kurnool. He also laid the foundation stone of 20 Critical Care Blocks (CCBs) across the state under Pradhan Mantri – Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission.

The PM also flagged off the Siddipet-Secunderabad-Siddipet train service.