KCR slams Cong, BJP as Maha leaders join BRS

Numerous Maharashtra leaders joined the Bharat Rashtra Samithi on Tuesday, in the presence of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

KCR has been on a 2-day Maharashtra trip that included a visit to the Vitthal Rukmini temple in Pandharpur. The Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader and his cabinet colleagues had arrived in Pandharpur on Monday in a motorcade with 600 vehicles.

The new members were inducted into the party in a public meeting in Maharashtra’s Solapur.

Former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Bhagirath Bhalke was also part of the leaders that joined BRS.

He was fielded in a poll by the NCP, after the death of his father and former MLA, Bharat Bhalke. Bhagirath lost the election to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Samadhan Audate.

Speaking to a huge gathering, KCR asked why despite being a new entrant to Maharashtra politics, why parties in the states were scared of the BRS.

“Congress has said that we are the B team of the BJP, BJP says we are the A team of the Congress. We are no one’s team, but the team of farmers, the backward classes, minorities, and Dalits,” the Telangana CM said.

Earlier, Shiv Sena (UBT) senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday remarked that the BRS chief and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is acting like the B team of BJP and the attempts of BRS to expand into Maharashtra will have no effect on the state’s politics.

KCR’s speech also contained numerous references to the BRS’s welfare schemes in Telangana, in a push to showcase the progress the state has attained under his leadership. It also centred on farmers issues, blaming the Maharashtra government and the central government for their inability to give farmers their due.

In an apparent push to get Bhagirath Bhalke elected from the constituency, KCR said “If Balkhe becomes an MLA he won’t just remain one, he can even become a Minister.”