Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao predicted on Thursday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not get a majority at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing election rallies here, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief reiterated that regional parties will play a key role at the Centre, as he slammed both the BJP and the Congress.
“Don’t cast even one vote for the BJP. It’s a waste. A vote for the Congress is even more waste,” KCR said, as he dubbed BJP and Congress as two sides of the same coin.
Stating that regional parties will play a key role in the coming days, he predicted that a coalition government will come to power at the Centre next year.
Addressing a rally in Adilabad, KCR said the BJP, which has been in power at the Centre for nearly 10 years now, did not give Telangana a single medical college.
“The BJP government sanctioned 157 new medical colleges across the country. I wrote 100 letters to the Prime Minister, but not a single medical college was sanctioned in Telangana. Are we not part of India? Are we not a state,” he asked.
Alleging that the Modi government has betrayed Telangana, the BRS chief mentioned that despite an Act being passed in the Parliament for Navodaya schools in all districts, the Centre did not sanction such schools for Telangana
He appealed to the people to not only vote BRS to power again in the state, but also ensure that the party wins all the Parliamentary seats so that Telangana can show its strength at the Centre.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Union minister P. Chidambaram made some interesting comments when he was asked about KCR’s prediction about coalition government at the Centre.
“Is he extending an olive branch to the Congress or to the BJP? Let him clarify first. We ran two successful coalition governments in Delhi from 2004 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2014,” he said.
Quoting Arvind Subramanian, former Chief Economic Advisor to the Modi government, Chidambaram said that was the golden period of growth.
“From 2004 to 2009, our average growth rate was 8.5 per cent and for the entire 10 years, the average growth rate was 7.5 per cent. Never before or never after have we achieved such growth rate,” he said.
When asked about KCR’s prediction that the BRS will play a key role after the 2024 elections, Chidambaram said, “I wish him well.”
“At the best how many seats can he win? With 17 seats, if he can play a key role, I wish him well.”
(IANS)
