The sudden decision of Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president and Telangana IT minister K T Rama Rao to fly down to New Delhi to meet several top ministers, including senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union home minister Amit Shah has raised many eyebrows.
That KTR is going to Delhi to meet Shah and others came to light only on Thursday evening and it was kept a closely guarded secret that he had sought their appointments. He will be there in the national capital for two days.
Though the BRS party leaders say the meeting will be purely official, it still evoked a lot of surprise, as neither chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao nor his son K T Rama Rao had ever gone to Delhi to meet the Central ministers.
The father-son did not even entertain when the Central minister came to Hyderabad. Instead, whenever a national BJP leader came to Hyderabad, KTR used to attack him or her on social media platforms.
Now that KTR himself is going to Delhi to meet Shah and others, it led to a lot of speculations in the media. One section of media is speculating that the meetings reflect the change in the stance of the BRS towards the BJP, in the wake of Enforcement Directorate probe into the Delhi liquor scam involving KCR’s son Kavitha.
“Possibly, KCR wants to patch up with the Centre. That is precisely why he has stopped being aggressive in his attack against the BJP in the recent past and is focussing more on attacking the Congress, which has become a real threat for him in Telangana in the forthcoming elections,” an analyst said.
There is also another talk doing rounds in the media. The KCR government wants to throw the blame on the Centre for not extending any financial assistance to Telangana.
All these days, the BJP leaders have been alleging that KCR and his ministers have never represented any major issues of Telangana with the Centre and hence, have no right to blame the BJP leadership.
Now with the state assembly elections just five months away, KCR has deputed his son to go to Delhi and take up the pending issues of Telangana with the Centre, particularly Amit Shah.
“Obviously, the BJP leadership doesn’t want to give any credit to KCR by sanctioning projects or releasing funds. KCR wants to turn it into his advantage in the coming elections, saying the Centre is not helping the state despite KTR making representations,” another analyst said.