Stop confrontation with Centre, Venkaiah tells KCR

Hyderabad: Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has called upon TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is all set to form the government in Telangana state on Monday, to work in coordination with the Central government, if it wishes to develop the state and fulfil the promises it has made to the people.

Venkaiah Naidu, who was in the city for the first time after taking charge as Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs, assured that both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states would get equal treatment from the Centre. For that both the States must maintain a cordial relationship. “It is only when the State government works in unison with the Centre there could be development and the State can get funding,” he said. Naidu was welcomed with much fanfare on Saturday by the party activists at Begumpet airport from where he went in a rally to the BJP office at Nampally. He was accompanied by the Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, MLA Lakshman and Khairtabad MLA Chintala Ramachandra Reddy. The Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy was conspicuous by his absence both in the rally and the meeting Venkaiah Naidu had with the party leaders.

The union minister said that the BJP should stand by the people and ensure that the new government implemented all the promises it had made. Taking a dig at Telangana chief minister-designate K Chandrasekhar Rao’s “belligerent attitude” towards the Centre with regard to the Polavaram project, he said a confrontationist attitude towards the centre would not do good to the new state. He said being the Chief Minister-designate, Rao should not have given the bandh call. Lauding the vision of the Prime Minister, he said Narendra Modi was a godsend man to realise the dreams of the people of India. He also said senior leader Bandaru Dattatreya would soon get due position at the Centre.