The announcement came at a time when the party leaders were second-guessing that their party chief would be going in for early polls.
KCR speaking at the meeting in Telangana Bhavan. (BRSParty/Twitter)
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said on Friday, 10 March, that BRS MLC and his daughter K Kavitha may be arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after her questioning on Saturday in New Delhi.
At a meeting of the BRS top leadership, KCR is also said to have brought the curtain down on all speculation of snap polls in the state, making it clear that the Assembly elections would be held as scheduled in November-December this year.
According to sources, the chief minister, sensing apprehension in the BRS ranks over Kavitha’s arrest, said the BJP-led Centre was trying to intimidate the party by arresting Kavitha, and promised take the fight to Delhi.
Meanwhile, BRS working president and state IT Minister KT Rama Rao left for New Delhi on Friday, on instructions from KCR, to be with his sister as she consults legal experts on the approach she should take when the officials of the ED question her.
He is also likely to discuss the intricacies of the case with legal experts.
Kavitha has already requisitioned the services of a battery of legal experts to help her figure out what questions the ED might ask her and how she should reply to them.
Her hunger strike camp at Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi, needless to say, has got eyeballs from all over the country and the development is expected to make the ED officials temper their questions and not push her too far or take the extreme step of arresting her.
The chief minister, who was addressing leaders of BRS at the party’s wide-ranging meeting at Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad, reportedly asked them to get ready for the big electoral joust.
“If necessary, all of you take out padayatras in your respective constituencies. You have to be in the midst of the people and explain to them the welfare and development initiatives of the BRS government,” he reportedly said.
KCR’s announcement came at a time when the party leaders were second-guessing that their party chief would be going in for early polls in Telangana in the wake of the BJP bearing down on it and making its leaders unpopular.
The chief minister also allayed the fears of the sitting MLAS over whether they would be nominated once again or not in the elections. He reportedly said that 99 percent of all sitting MLAs would get tickets again.
The grapevine was abuzz that the chief minister had called the party meeting immediately after the cabinet on Thursday as he was contemplating going in for early elections in the wake of ED calling his daughter and MLC K Kavitha to Delhi to question her in the infamous Delhi liquor scam and to ensure that the weight of anti-incumbency does not get any heavier.
The chief mister’s categorical statement that the elections would be held only at the end of this year made it clear that he was getting ready to take the BJP by its horns, come what may in the time that is left before the end of his term.
But some sections of the BRS still believe that KCR was trying to mislead the Opposition that he was not in favour of early polls in Telangana while thinking exactly the opposite as it is his way of rolling the dice against the BJP.
They refer to how KCR went for the early election in 2018 without anyone getting any inkling of what was going on in his mind.
BRS Chief and CM Sri K. Chandrashekar Rao chaired a joint meeting of the BRS Parliamentary Party, Legislature Party and the State Executive body at Telangana Bhavan today. pic.twitter.com/e7XwIaMA1v
— BRS Party (@BRSparty) March 10, 2023
At the party meeting on Friday, the chief minister assured the leaders that the BRS would do an encore in the elections as the surveys he had commissioned were indicating that the party would romp home easily and that there was no reason for anyone to doubt the party’s prospects.
The chief minister also took time to explain the decisions that were taken at the cabinet meeting held on Thursday and how he had gift-wrapped several freebies to various sections of people.
KCR asked them to organise meetings Assembly segment-wise in Telangana so that the message could go into the minds of the people effectively, ahead of the polls.
As Gruha Lakshmi, a scheme that got the cabinet nod on Thursday has the potential of becoming an electoral milch cow, he wanted the leaders to explain the scheme to beneficiaries.
Under the scheme the government would provide a cash component of ₹3 lakh for the construction of houses by the beneficiaries.
The other schemes that the cabinet had cleared and which KCR had thought would yield rich electoral dividends included the second phase of distribution of sheep as Telangana has a huge population of sheep-rearers.
The decision to implant Dalit Bandhu to more people is also one that would appeal to the targeted section of Dalits, the chief minister is understood to have felt.
According to sources, the chief minister also outlined the strategy for the party men in taking the BJP on. He is understood to have said he was waiting to see what would the BJP do after the ED had issued notices to his daughter Kavitha.
He said the BJP, which was in power at the Centre was creating problems for the BRS and said the party should face the challenge by taking legal recourse if necessary.
He underscored the need for the BRS to rise to the occasion and defeat the BJP at the hustings.
Apr 24, 2024
Apr 24, 2024
Apr 24, 2024
Apr 24, 2024
Apr 24, 2024
Apr 24, 2024
