ONOE is a cheap political gimmick, says KTR

Hyderabad: BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Tuesday described the One Nation One Election(ONOE) proposed by the Centre as a cheap political gimmick and an attention-diversion tactic by the BJP government.

In an informal interaction with the media, he expressed confidence of winning 90-plus seats in the ensuing elections, asserting that people would repose faith in the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

The BRS leader said the BJP has no answers on ‘unimplemented’ promises hence it was coming up with such ‘cheap stunts’. “It is a cheap political gimmick and attention-diversion tactic. They don’t talk on issues like employment, houses to all by 2022, bullet train and others.

‘If the BJP wants to do it, who is stopping them? They have bulldozing members and have elected governments in 17 States. This is a tactic to postpone elections in Telangana. There is nothing which benefits the country under the BJP rule,” said Rao.

Replying to a question, he said his party gave a letter on ONOE in 2018. Regarding the change of name of the country, Rao said what was there in the name. “We have a lot of things to talk about. Unfortunately, the BJP has nothing to talk about. It is total political bankruptcy,” Rao observed.

He alleged that the saffron party and the Congress MPs had done nothing for the State. The Karimnagar MP failed to bring even an IIIT, the Secunderabad MP who is also the Union Minister has done zero for the State, an MP who gave bond paper to bring Turmeric Board did not keep his promise; the Malkajgiri MP did not show his face to people in the constituency. ‘The BJP has been a disaster for the country’. Regarding the change of guard in the BJP, Rao said that earlier there was a ‘joker’ and now there was a ‘better joker’.

He alleged that the saffron party and Congress have been colluding in the State; this was proved when senior leader like Madhu Yashki and Ponnam Prabhakar lost deposits in Nizamabad and Karimnagar respectively. He said there were ED raids on Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, but there was no progress in the case. Not a single leader of Congress party from Telangana faced cases whereas many BRS leaders faced the ED, IT and others. The biggest advantage for PM Modi was that there were no candidates in the Congress.

The BRS leader said the Opposition parties lacked the chief minister’s face in Telangana. The BRS has KCR as the face of the party whereas the Opposition parties don’t have the courage to declare their CM candidate.

Rao refused to comment on developments in Andhra Pradesh. “We are not concerned or interested in what happens there. We have our own headaches. Being a national party doesn’t mean we should talk on all issues,” he said. When asked about the recent G-20, he quipped people these days were interested in T-20.

KTR took exception to Congress leader KVP Ramachandra Rao’s comments that he was a Telanganite. Rao said a person who broke the BRS party was talking about being a person from Telangana. Replying to a question on the alliance with the Left parties, Rao said discussions had taken place but did not meet arithmetic.