Nirmala Sitharaman holds talks with Telangana BJP cadre on strengthening party

Hyderabad: Union minister of defence and senior BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman held a meeting with senior BJP leaders, MLAs, and MLCs in the state on Friday.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s recent unsavoury remarks regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi were condemned at the meeting. Those in attendance demanded the immediate withdrawal of the remarks. They said that if the comments had in fact been the result of a “slip of the tongue”, as claimed by IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Thursday, then the CM should immediately provide an explanation.

Ms Sitharaman was in the city to attend the Tata-Boeing event on Thursday. She threatened to boycott the scheduled meeting to protest the CM’s remarks regarding Mr Modi. She later agreed to attend when Mr Rama Rao clarified that those remarks had not been intentional.