With 16 LS seats, KCR will bend Delhi's neck': KT Rama Rao's 2019 threat

Hyderabad: Claiming that the BJP and the Congress would not get a majority in the next parliamentary elections, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president K T Rama Rao on Wednesday said the interests of the state would be well-served if the party is in a 'decisive position' by winning substantial Lok Sabha seats.

"If you see, across the country, BJP is losing confidence. Congress is not in a position to gain confidence all over the country. That's why, each and every parliament seat is going to be crucial tomorrow," he said.

Rama Rao, son of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, quoted late Telangana ideologue K Jayashankar as having said that the state should get its due not by begging but by dictating.

TRS should win 16 out of the total 17 Lok Sabha seats, excluding Hyderabad represented by TRS's ally AIMIM, he said while speaking at a meeting of TRS workers from Sanathnagar Assembly seat in Hyderabad.

"If we have 16 seats in our hands because both (BJP and Congress) are not in a position to get a majority. Our chief minister is already making efforts for a federal alternative. So, TRS can be in a decisive role at the Centre post-Lok Sabha polls," he said.

"If we give 16 seats to KCR, he will bend Delhi's neck and we can get the funds for our state, the interests due to Hyderabad and schemes from the Centre to our people," he said.

The TRS's rule in Telangana has become a 'direction' to the country, he claimed. "Three states have already copied programmes like 'Rythu Bandhu' (investment support scheme for farmers) and 'Rythu Beema' (life insurance scheme for farmers)," he said.

Besides Odisha and Jharkhand, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced similar schemes in the name of 'Krishi Krishak Bondhu', he said.

The news coming in suggest that the NDA government is also planning to launch a scheme like 'Rythu Bandhu' in their own way, he claimed.

The saying earlier used to be 'what Bengal thinks today, India will think tomorrow', but Telangana is showing the path today, he said.

"Elders used to say earlier. What Bengal does today, what Bengal thinks today, India will think tomorrow... But today, the same Bengal is saying what Telangana does today, entire India will follow tomorrow," he said.

"If such a situation has come, the reason for it is our leader KCR's efficiency, vision and farsightedness," Rama Rao said.