Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu Thursday dubbed ruling TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao as “small Modi,” alleging he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were ‘cheating’ people.
“There is one big Modi in Delhi and small Modi here in the form of KCR (as Rao is popularly known). People are scared of the duo. Both are cheating people,” he said referring to “unfulfilled” electoral promises made by them.
Addressing a road show here as part of campaigning for the Congress-led four-party People’s Front for the 7 December Telangana assembly polls, he also claimed whoever posed questions to Modi would be subjected to searches by the CBI or the Income Tax department or the Enforcement Directorate. Prime Minister Modi was destroying constitutional bodies.
“A situation is emerging where there is no democracy. I cannot keep quiet. That is why me and Congress decided to work together to save democracy,” Naidu, whose party is part of the front, claimed that the TDP was the brain behind the development of Hyderabad and Telangana, saying ‘Cyberabad (IT district here) was his brainchild and he had brought software giants like Microsoft.
Earlier, talking to reporters, the TDP supremo defended joining hands with the Congress, saying they had no ideological differences with the Rahul Gandhi-led party. Naidu, who shared the dais with Gandhi at a couple of campaign meetings Wednesday in the state, said there was a democratic compulsion for non-BJP parties to come on a single platform.
“Politically, we (TDP and Congress) are different. The Telugu Desam Party, from the beginning has been fighting against the Congress and that is a reality. Ideologically, we do not have any differences. Ideologically, we have differences with the BJP,” he said.
“But today there is a democratic compulsion. That’s why there is a necessity to fight against the BJP to save the Constitution and also save institutions,” he said when asked about the decades-old differences with Congress.
The Congress has roped in the TDP, CPI and M Kodandaram-led Telangana Jana Samithi to form the People’s Front to take on the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti in the assembly polls. Naidu, who snapped ties with the BJP-led NDA earlier this year on the issue of special category status to Andhra Pradesh, said the saffron party had no chance of winning any of the five states that were presently under various stages of the election process.
He said the BJP could manage to win only four or five Lok Sabha bypolls in the last 20-odd ones. “Modi disappointed the nation. People trusted him so much… But he disappointed the nation. Everybody is living under pressure and tension. It is very bad for the nation that they are misusing institutions like CBI, ED and Income Tax,” he claimed.
On the proposed meeting of non-BJP parties on 10 December, Naidu said there would be no formal invitation to any party. On being asked who would lead the anti-BJP coalition, he said, there were efficient people and able administrators who would take the role.
“Who is Narendra Modi? Till 2014 he was just a chief minister. He was able to lead (his party to a win). Now there are efficient people and able administrators. They will lead. We will bring a consensus on that,” he said.
Naidu, who has been meeting leaders of various opposition parties in the recent weeks, ruled himself out of the race for prime ministership. “I am not in the race for prime ministership… I’ve told many times. I am not expecting any position or any incentive out of this initiative,” he said.
The TDP chief asserted that the People’s Front was going to win the coming polls and form the government in Telangana. At the roadshow, Naidu said TDP was committed to the development of Telangana and he had no intention of entering into the state politics and would confine himself to Andhra Pradesh. TDP is contesting in 13 seats in the Telangana polls.