New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Tuesday trained guns at Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, calling him “arrogant” and using the term “Chhota Modi”, alleging that he distributed government jobs among his family members, and criticising his state’s budget.
The AAP’s criticism of Rao and his party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) comes at a time when the Telangana CM is actively meeting regional political leaders to forge a united front — which excludes the Congress — to fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections.
However, Rao is yet to approach AAP chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal with regard to deliberations on the Opposition front, senior party leaders in the opposition camp and the AAP told ThePrint.
In a press statement issued late Tuesday, AAP’s Delhi MLA Somnath Bharti, who is also the party’s Telangana in-charge, said: “KCR is known as ‘Chhota Modi’ in Telangana, his arrogance only supports the claim… Just like BJP failing in every state in all aspects. TRS has failed massively in Telangana, KCR sahib is known as Chhota Modi in Telangana.”
He added: “Regardless of what they show on the surface, they are up to the same tricks as the BJP. Neither Modi sahib nor his clone, Chhota Modi Mr. KCR, were able to provide jobs for the youth, and unemployment continued to rise.”
The “Modi” in the term “Chhota Modi” is a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This term has often been used derisively by political opponents to describe Kejriwal as well as KCR for their style of politics and the way they branded themselves as political leaders in last few years.
ThePrint reached TRS leader and Telangana State Mineral Development Corp chairman Krishank Manne via calls and texts, seeking a comment. However, there was no response until the publishing of this report.
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What the AAP statement said
On Monday, the TRS government tabled the budget in the Telangana assembly. In its statement a day later, AAP criticised the budget over alleged reduced allocations in the education sector.
It also alleged that the Telangana CM handed out jobs to his family members.
“At the time of the Telangana struggle, KCR Saheb had stated that the first Chief Minister of Telangana would be an SC. But, far from keeping that vow, he first became Chief Minister, and then he handed out jobs to all of his family members like sweets,” it said.
“In Delhi, Kejriwal ji’s government did a slew of educational projects, the root of which can be traced back to the budget, where 25% of the Delhi government’s budget was devoted to education. At the same time, KCR sahib’s allotment to education in the Telangana government has been reduced from 10 to 6.26 percent this time… There is no plan in place to empower the people, but there is a plan in place to reign over them,” it said.
The development comes at a time when the AAP is anticipating a victory in Punjab, and senior party functionaries have told ThePrint that Kejriwal, at this stage, is unlikely to join any opposition front led by other regional leaders any time soon.
With inputs from Rishika Sadam.
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