26 to 33 Congress MLAs ready to form Government with BRS, won't hesitate to claim PM post: KCR

HYDERABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo K Chandrashekar Rao predicting a paradigm shift in Indian politics after the Lok Sabha elections, said that regional parties would form the Government at the Centre with the support of either of the two national parties and not the other way around.

Addressing a two-hour long press conference at the Telangana Bhavan on Saturday after the successful completion of the 17-day long ‘Poru Baata Bus Yatra’, KCR said that he would not hesitate to throw his hat for the Prime Minister post if the situation warrants him to play a role at the national political arena.

Speaking on a wide variety of issues at the State and national level, KCR said that he did not put his national political ambitions and said that there was demand from the BRS cadre from Maharashtra to contest in Assembly elections in that State. “The BJP will not cross the 200-220 mark and Narendra Modi is aware of the fact that he is losing. BJP might get one seat or none in Telangana, not even ten seats in South India. Might get 100 seats in north India,” he said.

Predicting third position for the Congress in at least nine seats in Telangana Lok Sabha elections, he attributed the mindless, vengeful policies of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for the decimation of the Congress within six months of coming to power in the State.

“BRS is going to perform better than the Congress and the BJP because people are angry and decided to bring back the BRS,” he said. He said that if BRS could win 14 seats it would dictate terms in national politics.

Predicting jail for Chief Minister Revanth Reddy after the elections in the vote for note case, KCR said that he had no chance of escaping arrest. “That is why the gossip of Revanth joining the BJP after the Lok Sabha elections is gaining momentum. Anything can happen’ KCR observed.

Terming AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s proposal to make Hyderabad the second national capital, KCR said that BRS would never allow such nefarious plans to fructify. He pointed out that those turncoats who joined the Congress after the Assembly elections did so for power.

“BRS is 60 lakh strong and no one can decimate us,” he said. Answering a question on BRS’s relation with the AIMIM, he said that despite the apparent silence in the recent electioneering, the relation with the Majlis was intact.

KCR opined that implementing crop loan waiver in one go would be impossible. “The talk on setting up a corporation is only a gas. Revanth Reddy doesn't have Rs 40,000 crore to implement the crop loan waiver. Coming to Muslim reservations, KCR said that those sections of the society that faced prolonged inequality such as SCs, STs, BCs, or Muslims must enjoy the fruits of reservation.

“Every state has its demographic problems. So one should oppose Muslim reservations perse and the whole political game going on around it is wrong,” he said.

Reiterating his stand on the phone tapping probe, KCR said that every Chief Minister received intelligence reports on varying subjects, and how the officers gathered that information would not be an issue of concern to him.

Refuting allegations that he failed to implement the free Urea promise, KCR said that ‘Rytu Bandhu’ financial assistance answered that problem. “Following the advice of agricultural economists we have decided to pay cash to farmers so that they would purchase the input they want. Free supply of Urea could lead to stocking and black marketing,” he explained.

KCR said that his daughter, BRS MLC Kavitha would come out clean in the Delhi Liquor Policy Scam case, in the light of Delhi CM Kejriwal’s release on bail. “It is a political scam. There is no money trail. Modi tried to topple my Government by purchasing a few BRS MLAs, we arrested the middlemen and sent police to BJP national headquarters in New Delhi to arrest the kingpin. That irked Modi who took revenge by arresting my daughter,” he said.

“She is US-educated and worked for the revival of Telangana culture even abroad. We are a political party and will withstand this too,” he said.