Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his son K T Rama Rao generally keep themselves away from the media.
Unless they want to address media or call them for informal interactions, there have been hardly any instances of the father-son duo entertaining the media.
Especially in the national media, KCR and KTR are hardly heard and seen, as they don’t like to interact with media much.
At least once or twice, KTR moves freely with the media, but not KCR. As a matter of fact, nothing much is known about KTR as a leader with potential.
But on Thursday, when KTR spoke at a summit convened by a national media house in New Delhi, everybody was really stunned at the way he responded to the questions with a lot maturity and a terrific understanding of the contemporary politics across the country.
Speaking about the Congress and the BJP, KTR did not hesitate to call them as “notional parties” rather than national parties.
“They are only larger regional parties. In fact, there are only regional parties in the country and the Congress or the BJP are only larger regional parties,” he said.
He pointed out that out of six states in Southern India, the BJP has its presence only in one state – Karnataka, that, too, after doing a lot of manipulations.
“Can a party that has only a meagre presence in South India be called a national party in the true sense of the description? “I don’t think so,” he added.
KTR said regional parties were emerging strong forces in various States which would build up a viable and credible national alternative.
“The time has come for India to take a call since both the BJP and the Congress have failed the people of the country in delivering the goods. Both the parties have let down the country,” he said.
The TRS working president did not hesitate to admit that his party had made a mistake in supporting the demonetisation.
“Yes, we regret it now. We trusted the BJP government and extended support in good faith, after Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed his concerns. The demonetisation has made a severe dent in our economy and has hampered growth,” he said, adding that one had to live with it but would make sure that the same mistake is not repeated.