The 17th plenary of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) revolved around TRS supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrshekar Rao’s Delhi dream.
The day-long plenary, held in Kompally in Hyderabad, was attended by more than 10,000 party workers and leaders. As expected, senior party leaders passed and approved a resolution, empowering Rao to play an active role in the national politics through a federal front.
Amidst cheers and slogans from the party cadre, Rao spoke for an hour in the morning session, allotting a good part of the one-hour speech to talk about the need for change at the centre.
He said his statement, made a month ago, about the need for a third front had created tremors at national level. Blaming the Congress and the BJP for the sad state of affairs in the country, he said both the parties are in jitters ever since a federal front contesting the 2019 elections became a possibility.
He said he had the same will to change the direction of the country as he had for a separate Telangana state.
He touched upon the “water wars” of the country to drive home the point. “There is 70,000 TMC water in this country and 40 crore acres of cultivable land. There is enough water in this country to take care of the drinking, domestic and agricultural needs.”
He said a lot of water disputes are not being settled by the Centre government—like Cauvery—only for political gains, and also due to inefficient administration. Rao then shared the slogan of the federal front—“Har acre main pani, har kheth main pani, har kisan ko pani."
“In six-seven years, we will provide water to the 40 crore acre land under agriculture,” he said.
Rao, once again, drew parallels with China and Singapore on the infrastructure front. He said the rail and road connectivity and handling of goods at ports were not on par with the two Asian countries, and added that China’s GDP had surpassed India’s even though it was the other way round a few decades ago.
He further said the BJP and the Congress governments had failed to stop the deaths of soldiers in Kashmir.
With an aim to bring in reforms for decentralisation of power, he said he will tour the country for the next two to three months to unite the regional parties.
TRS supporters from more than 20 countries attended the plenary.
The party collected around Rs 20.4 crore, contributed by the party MLAs, MPs and loyalists, which will added to party fund.