Suspense over KCR’s stand during Modi visit
The Centre has invited CM K Chandrasekhar Rao to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s programmes at Warangal.
Suspense prevails over the attendance of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official programmes at Warangal on Saturday, despite the Centre extending an official invitation to him for the event.
Newly-appointed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president and Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy told reporters in Hyderabad on Thursday that the Centre invited the chief minister to the Prime Minister’s programmes at Warangal. “We have given an invitation. If he comes or not, it is up to him,” Reddy said.
As per the official itinerary, the Prime Minister will be landing at Hakimpet airport in Hyderabad at around 9.45 am on July 8, from where he will be flying to Warangal to lay the foundation stones for several crucial infrastructure development projects in Telangana worth around ₹6,100 crore.
They include national highway projects worth over ₹5,550 crore and work to upgrade the 68-km-long Karimnagar--Warangal section of NH-563 from existing two lanes to a four-lane configuration. Modi will also lay the foundation stone of the railway manufacturing unit in Kazipet.
After addressing a public rally at Warangal, the Prime Minister would return to Hakimpet, from where he would be flying to Rajasthan.
Chief minister KCR has been avoiding facing Modi for nearly two years and dishonouring the protocol during the latter’s visits to Telangana since February 2022 .
In the past, he has designated a senior minister from Hyderabad, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, as minister-in-waiting to receive and see off the Prime Minister.
However, this time, there has been no such official communication from the chief minister’s office yet on whether KCR will depute Yadav to receive and see off the Prime Minister at Hakimpet airport again or he would follow the protocol, besides attending the official programmes of Modi at Warangal.
“So far, there is no message from the chief minister. He may take a call on attending the PM’s programmes at the last moment also. We hope there will be some clarity by Friday evening,” a BRS functionary privy to the developments in the CMO said.
The last time KCR met the Prime Minister in New Delhi was in September 2021. After the BRS lost the by-election to the Huzurabad seat on October 21, he has been adopting a confrontationist stand against the BJP.
Since then, KCR has been avoiding attending the Prime Minister’s official programmes, giving a go-bye to the protocol. Whenever Modi came to Hyderabad on February 5, 2022, to inaugurate the Statue of Equality on the outskirts of Hyderabad, KCR skipped the event on health grounds.
Subsequently, Modi came to Telangana four times, three times on official programmes and once for BJP national executive meeting, but KCR refused to meet him.
Moreover, whenever the Prime Minister came to Telangana, the BRS leaders indulged in a poster war, posing several questions to him on the Centre’s alleged lack of cooperation for the development of Telangana.
However, in the recent past, KCR has been adopting a soft stand towards the BJP and focussing more on attacking the Congress.
At the same time, the Centre has not been pursuing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into the alleged role of KCR’s daughter K Kavitha in the Delhi liquor policy scam.
This led to the talk in the political circles that KCR might have entered into some sort of understanding with the BJP national leadership, and he might even attend the Prime Minister’s programmes in Warangal. “There is no surprise if the chief minister suddenly decides to attend Modi’s programmes,” the BRS functionary quoted above said.
