Published Oct 01, 2026 | 11:59 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 01, 2026 | 11:59 AM
KTR at India Today conclave. (Screengrab)
Synopsis: KTR also ruled out any alliance with the BJP and said the BRS had not joined hands with the party at any point in its 26-year history. He said they contested the 2014, 2018 and 2023 Assembly elections on their own, and that BJP and BRS, as parties stood at opposite ends ideologically.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K T Rama Rao (KTR) said he was confident his party would return to power in Telangana. He further denied rumours that he was the party’s chief ministerial candidate and said K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) would be the chief minister again.
KTR addressed the India Today Conclave South 2026 held in Kochi on Wednesday, 30 September as part of a discussion on ‘Beyond Cyberabad: The Case for Telangana’s Next Decade.’
KTR also ruled out any alliance with the BJP and said the BRS had not joined hands with the party at any point in its 26-year history. He said they contested the 2014, 2018 and 2023 Assembly elections on their own, and that BJP and BRS, as parties stood at opposite ends ideologically.
Turning to delimitation, he warned that southern states could be penalised for having controlled population growth. He said the South’s share of the national population had slipped from about 24 per cent to 19 per cent, and that a population-based exercise would hurt several states.
KTR questioned why only Lok Sabha seats were being increased and not Assembly seats, and why women’s reservation was not being applied to the existing 543 Lok Sabha seats. He said the BRS would support the move only if seats were raised proportionately.
KTR said he could not trust Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s assurance that no state would be wronged. He noted that several promises made to Telangana, including those under the state Reorganisation Act, remained unfulfilled. He also pointed out that Assembly seats had been increased in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir but not in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
On the Congress government in Telangana, KTR described the mood in the state as “Recall, Regret and Revolt”. He said the party had made over 420 promises before the 2023 polls and had not fully delivered on any of them. People were now reconsidering their vote and wanted KCR back, he claimed.
He also accused Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy of being more loyal to the Delhi leadership than to the state’s interests.
“I have seen Telangana Chief Minister yesterday talk about Ram vs Shiva. BJP wants to divide the country on religious lines, Hindu-Muslim. This Congress fellow wants to divide our own Gods – Ram vs Shiva. What nonsense is this? These are the two national parties? Seriously? And this is your agenda? This is what you want to talk about?” he asked, criticising both BJP and Congress.
“Where is the discussion from this gov on jobs, on the promises they made? By 2022, every household in India was supposed to have a potable drinking water connection; we were supposed to be a $5 trillion economy by 2022. We were supposed to have bullet trains running across the country by 2022; where is the discussion on that? We talk about Vande Mataram, UCC, Ram Mandir, Ram Mandir theft; where are the real issues of people being discussed?”
Also Read: After 1,000 days in office, Revanth bets on ‘visible impact’ taking on KCR’s infra legacy
Speaking about the Election Commission of India, KTR claimed, “On ECI, we made our stand very, very clear. ECI today faces some serious credibility issues, unlike ever in independent India. Over the last few years, the ECI has been under tremendous scrutiny. Without a question, what The Indian Express has outed is something that the entire country today truly believes to be a fact.”
Demanding an independent probe headed by a Supreme Court Judge “The onus is fully on the Supreme Court of India, to take suo motu cognisance and order an independent judicial probe, because the ECI, at the end of the day, is a constitutional body. Otherwise, no matter what the opposition says, no matter what any other party says, the fact will remain that BJP will continue to support whatever the ECI has done. ECI will continue to defend what it’s done.”
KTR said, “The entire credibility of the world’s largest democracy is in question. I don’t see eye to eye with Rahul Gandhi on a lot of things, but on this issue, yes, I do believe it does require serious scrutiny.”
“After such allegations, the moral responsibility is on the CEC to step down voluntarily without having to be sacked or without even a demand coming from any party. Such serious allegations of, 10 out of 14 times, him vetoing two other election commissioners is not a joke or not a normal thing.”
“So, if I was Gyanesh Kumar, I would have stepped down already and sought a probe. But unfortunately, in our country at this point in time, polarisation across parties is so clear; I don’t think he is going to do it,” the BRS leader said.
(Edited by Sumavarsha, with inputs from Sreshta Ladegaam)
