KCR spares Chandrababu Naidu, but PM Modi in TRS chief’s crosshairs

HYDERABAD: With the BJP looking to make inroads in Telangana in the Lok Sabha election, chief minister and TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has changed his campaign strategy. While KCR targeted his guns at Congress and TDP, and even more at Chandrababu Naidu during the Assembly election, he is concentrating his attacks at Prime Minister Narendra Modi this time around.
In the three major public meetings that he has addressed so far for the Lok Sabha polls, KCR has devoted a major portion of his speech towards attacking the BJP, Narendra Modi and BJP state president K Laxman.KCR, sources say, is desperate to win all 16 seats (the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat will see a friendly fight with MIM). The party’s impact at the Centre may get affected unless TRS pockets these seats. “Laxman makes fun of us asking what we can do with 16 seats at the Centre. We will show him what we can do. And I also want to ask him what BJP has been able to do at the Centre in the last five years,” KCR questioned at a public meeting in Miryalaguda on Friday.
This is the question TRS bigwigs like KTR, Harish Rao and K Kavitha are posing at every meeting.
BJP, on the other hand, is hoping for a good show. The party got D K Aruna to fight in Mahbubnagar seat and has fielded G Kishan Reddy from Malkajgiri. In Nizamabad, too, Dharmapuri Arvind may prove to be a tough contender. It hopes of retaining Secunderabad as well. To dampen the spirits, KCR has been reminding the electorate, “the BJP lost deposits in 103 out of 118 Assembly segments it contested from in the assembly elections.”
In another meeting, KCR was heard quipping, “in the last election, Modi called himself a chaiwallah and now he calls himself a chowkidar. Aren’t there bigger issues that need attention?”
An upbeat K Laxman told TOI: “KCR is scared and that is why he is attacking Modi. He knows that the BJP is emerging stronger in Telangana.”