Maharashtra: KCR inaugurates BRS office, speaks of farmer suicides; cites Obama presidency while talking of conditions of Dalits

Nagpur: Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday inaugurated his party's office in Nagpur, its first in Maharashtra, as part of his ambitious plan to increase the organisation's footprint outside his home state.

He expressed concern over farmer suicides in Maharashtra and pitched for his "Telangana model" of development in the state.

He also said the country would not be able to sleep properly till conditions of Dalits change, adding that the United States of America had "cleansed itself of sins" committed on the "red Indians" by electing Barack Obama as its president.

Rao, popularly known as 'KCR', was accorded a warm welcome by the workers of his party on his arrival at the Nagpur airport around 3.45 pm, after which he inaugurated the BRS office located near Sai temple on Wardha Road.

Addressing a gathering in Suresh Bhat Hall here, Rao said people were struggling for water, electricity and proper price for agricultural produce even after 75 years of Independence.

"Farmers are committing suicide in the country, most of which is witnessed in Maharashtra. Despite so many rivers flowing across the state, why are farmers ending their lives," he asked. He said 24-hour power and water supply in Telangana had reduced farmer suicides considerably there.

There is need for a new national water policy, said Rao, whose BRS government has been in power since Telangana's formation in 2014.

"What is the condition of Dalits in the country? Unless their poverty and injustice done of them is wiped off, the blot on our face won't go away. Till the condition of Dalits doesn't change, the blot won't go away," Rao said.

"The whites had done injustice on red Indians (in America). But America has cleansed its sins by making Barack Obama the president of USA," he claimed.

Rao said Adivasis in India were also struggling like Dalits and the former were continuously fighting for their rights since Independence.

"No solution is being found for their problems in spite of the presence of intellectuals, officials and political parties. Unless there is change in the ideology of the country nothing will change. Polls will take place, some parties will win, some will lose. This drama will continue," the BRS chief asserted.

He said the aim was to win polls at any cost and the "country is getting misguided over victories and losses in elections". There has been change in government in Karnakata (where the Bharatiya Janata Party government of Basavaraj Bommai was unseated by the Congress, which won 135 seats in the 224-member House there in May) but will there be any change in the state, he asked.

"The real win in democracy should not be of leaders, political parties, faces but of the public," the Telangana chief minister said.

Rao claimed BRS was expanding rapidly in Maharashtra with four lakh members already on various party committees.

"An army of 25-30 lakh people will join BRS in Maharashtra. Party offices are coming up in Pune, Mumbai and Aurangabad," Rao said.

In December last year, the KCR-led party had changed its name from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to underline its intention of becoming a pan-India party.

Last month, Rao announced a month-long programme to expand the BRS party's network in over 45,000 villages in urban civic bodies in Maharashtra.

Accordingly, on May 22, the BRS began its drive to form party committees in the state as part of its exercise to go beyond the confines of its traditional stronghold Telangana.

KCR recently held rallies in parts of Maharashtra, mostly in Nanded, where he slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre and the one in Maharashtra led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for neglecting farmers and the downtrodden.

Inputs from PTI