Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday cited Delhi's alleged 'liquor scam' to accuse Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of being under 'remote control' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Some Telangana leaders have also allegedly come under the scanner in the Delhi liquor scam case, besides leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party, which is in power in the national capital.
"Telangana and its youth should understand one thing that KCR is under the control of Prime Minister Modi because of his corruption activities. The corruption he did in the liquor scam, is known to all agencies," Gandhi said at a public meeting in Khammam.
"That's why I said that TRS is BJP's B-Team and they have accepted that by changing their name to BRS, which means BJP Rishtedar Samithi," he added.
The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Arun Ramchandra Pillai, an alleged frontman for the liquor cartel 'South Group', in a money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy case.
He is said to be a close aide of Bharat Rashtra Samiti MLC and Chief Minister Rao's daughter K Kavitha.
Kavitha has also been questioned in the case related to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2020-21.
Gandhi said when the Congress raised the farmers' bill issue in Parliament, the TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti, now known as BRS or Bharat Rashtra Samiti) supported the BJP.
"Whatever Modi wants, Rao does for him. Because Modi has got remote control of KCR," he said. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is popularly called KCR.
Referring to the recent Karnataka assembly elections, the former Congress chief said, "A few months ago, we fought against a corrupt and anti-poor government in Karnataka and we defeated it."
"We defeated the BJP in Karnataka where they were supported by their billionaire friends and something similar is going to happen in Telangana. On one side, there is the chief minister, his family and his 10-15 billionaire friends, and the other side has all the poor, dalits, tribals, minorities, small shopkeepers, farmers and small workers, who will all together repeat what has happened in Karnataka," he said.
"Like we defeated the BJP in Karnataka, we will defeat BJP's B-team in Telangana," Gandhi said.
On the recent attempts to forge an opposition unity against the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he said, "When opposition parties met, they told us that TRS should also be called, but we told them very clearly that if TRS attends this meeting, the Congress would not attend it."
"We told the opposition parties that TRS is BJP's B-team and we will throw them out of Telangana. We can't do any deal with the BJP's B-team," Gandhi said.
While BRS was not part of the recent opposition meeting in Patna, Bihar, the Aam Aadmi Party after attending the meet said that any alliance with the Congress would be 'very difficult' until the grand old party agrees to oppose the Centre's Delhi ordinance.
Gandhi, however, did not say anything about the developments in Maharashtra where a big chunk of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Sunday switched sides, a development being seen as a major jolt to the opposition bloc.
"I also want to tell one thing, there are many people who have left the Congress party. Our doors are always open for everyone. Whoever believes in the Congress ideology, our doors are always open for them. But whoever believes in the ideologies of the BJP and the TRS, we do not have anything to do with those people," he said as a number of leaders, including from the BRS, joined his party.
"I want to tell workers of the Congress that they are our backbone and they can easily defeat the TRS. You have shown your power in Karnataka and now is the time to do the same here in Telangana," Gandhi said.
He also promised Rs 4,000 per month pension for senior citizens and widows, and land for tribals.
"This is another step to help the poor," the Congress leader said.
