Busy or snub? KCR fails to get Prime minister's time

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao returned to Hyderabad from New Delhi late on Tuesday without meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Despite repeated efforts, KCR couldn't secure an appointment with the PM, said sources.

KCR went to Delhi on Monday to meet the PM to press for an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Hyderabad besides few more issues concerning Telangana, arising out of the bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.

Official sources said the PMO did not confirm Modi’s appointment to the CM, citing his busy schedule due to the ongoing Winter session of Parliament and the Jharkhand Assembly polls. Modi on Tuesday kickstarted his campaign in Jharkhand with a few public addresses.

While KCR was ready to stay put in Delhi till Wednesday if he was given an appointment, the PMO reportedly told the CM's office that Modi won't be able to meet KCR till the Parliament session ends on December 13. KCR is again expected to visit Delhi then.

The seemingly simple issue of PM's busy calendar, however, triggered speculations that TRS and BJP are set for more confrontations in the days to come.

The Telangana unit of the BJP is engaged in a bitter political fight with the TRS since May when the saffron brigade shocked the ruling party by bagging four Lok Sabha seats. The biggest upset to KCR was BJP trouncing his daughter and sitting MP, K Kavitha, in Nizamabad.

Another blow to KCR was BJP defeating his close aide B Vinod Kumar in Karimnagar. Besides, the BJP also bagged Secunderabad and Adilabad Lok Sabha seats and increased its tally in Telangana to four from just one in 2014.

The BJP recently launched massive agitations against the state government over the TSRTC strike by involving RTC employees.

TRS sources said that KCR has to attend a few weddings of the kith and kin of his party leaders, who are close to him, in Hyderabad on Wednesday. This made KCR return to the city on Tuesday, they said.