Generally known for his stubborn attitude, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandasekhar Rao was forced to succumb to pressures from the Bharatiya Janata Party for the first time on Saturday.
Within hours of the BJP leaders setting a deadline of one week for the TRS government to remove all the images depicting KCR and his party from the pillars of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Yadadri, the chief minister instructed that all the images other than that of gods and the temple be removed from the premises.
Following instructions from KCR, CMO officials held a meeting with authorities of Yadadri Temple Development Authority and temple architects late on Saturday evening and ordered that except those related to the God and the temple, no other pictures or symbols be allowed on the temple walls and pillars.
Earlier in the day, the BJP leaders including state president K Laxman and Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh staged a protest dharna at the temple in protest against carving of images of KCR, TRS election symbol car and his government’s programmes on the pillars and walls of the Yadadri temple.
Apparently, the chief minister expressed anger over the controversy and sough to know under whose instructions the pictures of various leaders including KCR, Indira Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi and symbols of certain political parties were engraved on the temple.
The CMO officials told the temple authorities to remove all of them. It would mean there would be no images of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Nehru or Rajiv Gandhi and not just KCR.
The so-called pictures of Telangana culture and Indian life would also be removed from the temple walls.