KCR has all capabilities to become PM: KTR

Hyderabad: TRS working president K T Rama Rao has said Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has all capabilities to become Prime Minister of the country. "Ideally we want a non-Congress and non-BJP Prime Minister.

If a gentleman (Rahul Gandhi) who lost municipal election in his constituency can dream of being Prime Minister, why not KCR? Second time he has won the Assembly, he is number one Chief Minister according to a survey why not. He has in him the capacity to lead the country," KTR told The Hans India in an interview.

Are you throwing hat in the ring?

I am not throwing hat in the ring, but I am saying he is capable. However, my humble opinion is that KCR garu should lead this State for another 10 to 15 years. Compared to Rahulji or Modiji, did he fulfil his promises? Absolutely he has.

People have given him the certificate. Even the Centre is copying our schemes. KCR Garu's thought has become practice in the country. I am happy that good schemes are copied by Delhi. After all, life is all about picking up best practices in the country.

You are saying that the Federal Front will have 160 seats and from where will you get remaining seats?

Federal Front we are proposing today may not appear formidable but let me remind you nobody has thought that Manmohan Singh would be Prime Minister for 10 years. Nobody would have thought BJP would lose after they had campaigned on the slogan of 'India Shining' and nobody would have thought until 2012 that Modiji would become Prime Minister of the country.

Lot of unpredictable things have become a reality as Indians have always surprised political parties. The two 'so called' national parties... they are technically national parties though. BJP is a big zero in South India barring Karnataka.

Congress- strength has now depleted and almost become non-existent in Uttar Pradesh, the biggest State, and 20 other States. It has also become a big regional party. Our party chief has been in discussion with Mamataji, Akhileshji, Mayaji, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy garu. Wait till May 23, everything will not be disclosed to the media.

What is the Difference between the last Assembly and Lok Sabha elections and now?

The Assembly elections gave a sense of what people are thinking about KCR garu. There was shrill campaign in media...it looked like entire world was campaigning against KCR garu.

People chose KCR garu and it gave us lot of confidence and demoralised opponents. As far as this election is concerned our line is fairly simple. This election is setting the tone for the government Delhi. I am not saying KCR garu a probable candidate for Prime Minister, but we don't want country to suffer bipolar disease.

When Rahul Gandhiji, who wants to be Prime Minister only has 44 MPs in Lok Sabha it is a tall claim as he has to go far from 44 to 272.

If KCR garu gets 16 MPs, it is the same. Telangana protagonist ambition is same as Rahul Gandhiji's ambition.

Are you saying that there will be coalition government at the Centre and Federal Front will rule?

Recent surveys showed coalition era is set to continue in the country where no party is going to get absolute majority. BJP is going down from their high of 282 in 2014 and I don't foresee them crossing 150.

With SP-BSP combine in Uttar Pradesh, it has emerged formidable alliance. Most certainly, there is a change in the way the wind is blowing. Last time BJP got 72 from UP and I don't see BJP getting these numbers. They are losing their allies.

They lost their friend Chandrababu Naidu, Akali Dal is down and dumped, Shiv Sena in Maharashtra is bending the BJP and it has led to weakening of its position.

With the rhetoric of BJP leaders today, it is evident they don't have enough to showcase what they have done.

They are talking about Pulwama, the statement of Prime Minister on Wednesday trying to take credit of scientists into his own kitty.

Rahulji's Congress failed to inspire the electorate. In States like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has won by a whisker. In Gujarat, the Congress party gave away winning States on a platter to the BJP.

Why should a Trinamool Congress throw weight behind the Congress and make it big party? Wait for May 23 and look how it would shape up. When the real power is you, why should you throw away? If DMK does not ally with the Congress, can the latter win single seat in Tamil Nadu. Why these two Dravidian parties should make them bigger.

What is the agenda for the Federal Front?

The Federal Front is a non-Congress and non-BJP coalition, which will take shape on May 23. Important subjects like health, education, agriculture have great potential to impact the lives of the people, but these are included in concurrent list.

Why they should continue like that. We should strengthen the States more. The Centre has started Aayushman Bharat but we along with Andhra Pradesh have superior health scheme in the name of Aarogyasri.

The Centre should have given money to the State and empower the States to use them. The Centre should leave these subjects to the States and concentrate on terrorism, national security, external affairs, defence, trade and commerce.

It is said that the regional parties don't have national agenda?

It is a wrong notion that regional parties do not have national agenda. Who responded carefully and which BJP CM or Prime Minister has responded like CM KCR. We stopped our meetings for one week.

Neither Rahulji nor Modiji stopped talking about politics. When pilot Abhinandan was taken prisoner, one gentleman was taking up programme 'Mera booth Sabse Majboot' and another was criticising government instead of being with it. We don't need the national parties to have nationalistic idea.

During the Kerala floods, best responded State was Telangana and even during the Hudhud and calamity in Jharkhand. Even though not a single soldier was from Telangana in Pulwama attack, we responded and gave Rs 25 lakh to the families.

We wanted to set example. Our armed forces are fighting for us and we need to reach out to them. People of this country will surprise these national parties with their votes.

Your opponents are saying why KCR is not contesting for Lok Sabha elections when he is interested in national politics?

This is a nonsensical argument raised by my opponents. Why should he contest? Wherefrom Where from Manmohan Singh was elected when he became the Prime Minister.

He was from Assam. That is why I say this is nonsensical argument. If that is the case, the TPCC Chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy should first resign from the Assembly before he contested in Lok Sabha elections.

Congress party alleges that TRS is the B-team of BJP, what do you have to say?

Rahul Gandhi comes to Hyderabad to campaign and says TRS is B-team of BJP and at the same time Prime Minister Narendra Modi says ours is a B-team of the Congress party.

We are not anybody's B-team. We are A-team of people of Telangana. This is the conspiracy... they want the world to think that the regional parties of this country are subordinates to these two national parties.

We dam care about BJP or Congress. We contested in the election... We dissolved the Assembly and held elections. We trounced BJP in 119 seats and their candidates lost deposits in 103 seats.

The Chief Minister has targeted the BJP more than the Congress in Lok Sabha campaign why?

We are tired by cursing Congress. The Congress party is tested, tried and dusted commodity. Why the BJP was targeted? Because, they always come out with rhetoric of Ram Temple and other issues.

They have kept aside whatever happened during the last five years and Ram Mandir has come out. That is why our CM has said they are political Hindutwa activists and we are real Hindutva.

Our CM without making hue and cry is developing Yadadri. He is a man who practises his dharma. He does not make big tamasha for votes.

There are rumours that Harish Rao has been kept aside in the party. What do you have to say?

Neither of us is in Cabinet. I came into politics in 2006 and became Minister in 2014. This is my fourth election... I won the first election with 171 votes, second with 54,000 votes and third with 89,000 votes and I fought my way up.

I was part of the movement for eight years should I say I was sidelined till 2014? It is Chief Minister who decides who should work where.

I was given the responsibility of GHMC, he was given Mahbubnagar. You are reading too much into this and making a non-issue an issue.

Why some sitting MPs were denied tickets? Did they work against the party?

The BJP released first list of 132 MPs... how many sitting MPs got tickets again? For number of reasons at times the sitting MPs will not get ticket.

There will be social equations, MLAs, not everything will be disclosed. They will again be rewarded at some point of time.

You are not talking about AP CM Chandrababu Naidu as your party chief talked about giving a return gift to him?

As far as he is concerned, we have clarity. People of Andhra Pradesh are going to make him retire. If Jagan gets 20 or 22 MP seats, Chandrababu neither can spin the 'Chakram' in Delhi nor spin 'Bonguram' in Vijayawada.

We are not contesting in Andhra Pradesh, but he is talking more about KCR than NTR. He was the one who wanted alliance with us three months back but now he is talking against us. If we had alliance, he would not have said this.

Will there be impact of Council election results in the coming election?

We did not contest in council elections where will be the question of impact. We did not give B-Forms to any candidate. When we enter into election, the scenes will be different.

We didn't really give B Form some people have campaigned claiming to have support of KCR garu. We have focused on Parliament elections. we did not activate our cadre for the council election.

The Congress party's assertion is that one MLC seat victory has turned the tide in their favour. What should we say when we won 88 seats in the recent elections?

What do you have to say about the campaign by the national parties?

The debate in the election should have been about employment, health, education, agriculture. The national parties have left all these and are talking about Bofors and Rafael.

One says 'I am Chowkidar', another one says 'Chowkidar chor hai' 'I am Thekedar'. We are saying we need 'Imandaar, Jimmedaar and Wafardaar' and a person who can show the right path to the country.

People of this country will surprise these so-called national parties. People are wiser than Modiji and Rahul Gandhiji. Nobody is keen on Bofors or Rafael. They bother about two crore jobs every year as promised by the Prime Minister and Rs 15 lakh in their accounts.

Right from grand Mother (Indira Gandhi) to grandson (Rahul Gandhi), they are talking about 'Gareebi Hatao. We are saying donon ko hatao Desh ko Bachao.

Congress party is alleging that there was no democracy as their MLAs are being poached what do you have to say?

Defections are quite natural during elections. If anyone is to be blamed for this, it is the Congress party. Three months before there were elections in the State and one MP and four of our MLCs joined Congress.

Now the Congress MLAs are coming into TRS what is wrong with this. A party which imposed Emergency is talking about 'Save Democracy'. They are accusing us of purchasing.

I might ask the same question of Congress party today- for how much you are purchasing. These are all baseless allegations. All the MLAs are saying they are ready to resign.

The Congress party has said that they won with huge margin because of ballot papers and alleged EVM tampering. What do you have to say?

The Congress has won in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh. Did they win there by tampering with EVMs? Will people keep quite if we won elections by tampering EVMs? They will revolt us.

Will the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency go for ballot paper?

Ballot or machine, it is technicality. A vote is a vote. The MSP is decided by Central government. Regarding Nizamabad, this is not a real farmers fight. This was done deliberately by Congress and BJP and not by real farmers.

During 2004 Assembly byelection from Sircilla, we ensured that the election was held through ballot paper as more than 60 nominations were filed. My majority decreased to 25,000. Even now in Nizamabad, they cannot stop our victory by such tricks.

Will there be impact of anti-KCR vote in the elections?

Anti-KCR vote will work if two things are true- If KCR works against interest of Andhra, it will work.

In fact, he has helped Andhra Pradesh during Hudhud. He went to Amaravati and congratulated them. If there was an opposition or grudge, we would not have won the GHMC elections and seats in Hyderabad.

The election results itself are a telling commentary on how satisfied people of Andhra origin are in Hyderabad.