Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhara Rao sought blessings of Lord Vithoba in Pandharpur on Tuesday and kickstarted the Bharat Rashtra Samiti’s (BRS) election campaign in Maharashtra. He addressed the party cadre and supporters at Sarkoli near Pandharpur, where prominent NCP leader Bhagirath Bhalke joined the BRS, KCR blamed all the parties in the state for “doing nothing for farmers” and reasserted his ‘Aab Ki Baar, Kisan Sarkar’ slogan.
KCR: "BRS is no team of anybody"
KCR took on the Congress and the NCP first. While refuting the charges of being the BJP’s ‘B’ team, he said, “BRS is no team of anybody. We are a team in ourselves. We are a team of farmers for the farmers. I wonder why the people are so afraid of our small party,”
Putting forth a strong pro-farmer pitch, he said, “A lot could have been done for the farmers. If a small state like Telangana can implement so many welfare schemes, why can’t a big state like Maharashtra? If they implement the schemes for farmers, the farmers will get rich and politicians will get poor. Which they don’t want.”
KCR slams Shinde government
KCR took on the Eknath Shinde government for not being able to provide water and electricity to farmers and also failing to implement the Centre’s Digital India scheme. “We have devised a system in Telangana where only the biometric signature of the farmer can change the ownership of the land and no one else,” he said and added that the whole system needs to be changed.
Retorting almost immediately, Shinde said that KCR should bother about Telangana and that he is capable of looking after Maharashtra. “I have learnt that many of his men are defecting to other parties. He should bother about it. We are a democracy. Anyone can contest from anywhere. Hence, we are least bothered about who comes here. People of Maharashtra are wise,” he said.
