TRS governance was a disaster, so was Congress

Outlining the BJP’s election strategy to woo rural voters of Telangana for winning the forthcoming Assembly elections, party official spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao shares his views in an interview with The Hans India

How the electioneering is going?
It will be at peak in the first week of December. The party campaign will be a game changer with our top national leaders and star campaigners addressing 100 plus meetings across the State which will bring a shift in the Telangana political ecosystem. The two public meetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also change the political landscape of the State.

As of now, where do you stand with regard to TRS and Mahakutami?
Both the TRS and Congress have the same thing to say that BJP is not in the fray. It shows that their propaganda is out of an understanding between both of them. They wanted to corner BJP. But, people of Telangana don’t think so, no matter how loud they say it. We believe that the contest will be a triangular one. Of the three parties, the least strength is now exhibitive from the Congress. We are contesting in 118 seats, one going to an alliance party. The Congress is not contesting even the number of seats we are contesting. Why the Congress is contesting less than 100 seats and the rest of the seats divided among the three parties. Now, our question is who is weak? The TRS is an incumbent party and the Congress does not have the strength to attack the TRS as we see it. Also, there is not a single face in the Congress acceptable to the people of Telangana as CM. Further, neither Congress knows who its CM candidate nor there are too many in the race.

Is it that your party is known to have the support base in the urban areas that you are focusing on the rural areas this time?
Because of our internal organisational strategy, this time we are focusing on the rural Telangana to come to power. That is why we consider rural Telangana is our priority area. And, the outcome is also expected to come from there. The rural Telangana push is the game changer. We are focusing more on rural areas because the party already has its support base in the urban areas that are always with us.

You are a newcomer unlike Congress, TD and TRS who had formed the government in the State, except that you are contesting in 118 seats. How you want to convince people to vote for you?
The BJP’s pitch for power is of threefold. Firstly, the incumbent government of KCR has failed in governing Telangana. TRS governance in the State was a disaster and this is our first pitch. How KCR has failed in the governance and not being a democratic and constitutional head making the Ministers dummies, moving the State from revenue surplus one to a deficit one, abusing power and misusing the public funds and indulging in the non-transparent and corrupt government are among the issues we are highlighting. Secondly, KCR has not delivered on the manifesto promises. He had made so many promises, but not a single promise was fulfilled. Third, the Congress had ruled the State for 50 years. But, nine out of 10 of the old districts of the State remained backward. In literacy and unemployment, Telangana remained almost at the bottom of the statistical rates in the country.

Why such a hard stand against TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu?
What we are opposing is the signature politics of the TDP chief. His politics has always been that of the survival and power oriented. The very origin of TDP was anti-Congress. But, today, he is roaming with his hands on the shoulders of Rahul Gandhi. Further, there were 10 to 15 incidents in which he had written letters to the Centre not only irrigation projects, but also on sharing of assets and the like raising objections. Why Congress is extricating the dead TDP and rubbing on to the people of the State?