Sounding the bugle on his plans to go national, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday hit out at the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre over its 'Make in India' initiative and others.
He also announced promises like free electricity to farmers if a government supported by his party came to power at the Centre.
Rao was addressing the first public meeting organised by his party -- Bharat Rashtra Samithi -- after its name had been changed from TRS to BRS.
With Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and CPI General Secretary D Raja in attendance, the meeting was seen as a coming together of opposition parties ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing the massive gathering, Rao alleged that the country continued to witness problems over water sharing and others in spite of having vast natural resources and that BJP and Congress blamed each other instead of addressing people's issues.
The BRS has been established to question the failures over addressing problems like drinking water and other development needs and to realise people's aspirations in the country, he asserted.
Free electricity would be provided to farmers across the country if a 'BRS proposed government' assumed power at the Centre in 2024 post the general election, Rao said.
KCR, as Rao is also known as, accused the NDA government of promoting the interests of corporates and burdening the common man.
"I am directly telling Prime Minister Narendra Modiji. Your policy is privatisation. Our policy is nationalisation," he quipped.
Attacking the Centre over 'disinvestment of LIC', he said insurance behemoth LIC would be brought back into the public sector even if the Modi government "sold it off".
Opposing Modi's reported comments that 'government has no business to do business', Rao said "we say government has every business to do business wherever it is required".
He also attacked the 'Make in India' programme of the NDA government. "Make in India has become a joke in India. There is Make in India, but there are China bazaars in every street (in the country)." He further said if BRS comes to power, the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in armed forces would be abolished.
Schemes like Telangana’s 'Rythu Bandhu' (for the welfare of farmers) should be implemented throughout the country and it is his party's slogan and demand, KCR asserted.
He said the Telangana government's flagship Dalit welfare scheme 'Dalit Bandhu' (grant of Rs 10 lakh to each household) would be implemented across the country with 25 lakh households per year benefitting from it.
Earlier, the Chief Ministers and other leaders attended the launch of the second phase of the Telangana government's 'Kanti Velugu' eye screening programme at Khammam.
Led by Rao, Kejriwal, Mann and Akhilesh Yadav offered prayers at the Lord Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Yadadri near Hyderabad which has been renovated on a grand scale by the Rao government.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI leader D Raja also reached Yadadri, according to an official release.
However, they did not go for 'darshan,' sources in the Left parties said.
