'BJP will have no tie-up with TRS'

Hyderabad: Virtually sounding the poll bugle, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday said his party will contest the upcoming Telangana Assembly election on its own.

In the city to formally launch the party's poll campaign at a public meeting in Mahabubnagar, about 110 km from here, Shah said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would not go for a tie-up with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the ruling party in the southern state.

The BJP would not have any alliance with any party and it hoped to emerge as a "deciding factor" in the upcoming polls, he said.

"We are not going to have any political tie-up with the TRS. The BJP will fight on its own strength. We will fight against appeasement politics also," Shah told reporters here, before leaving for Mahabubnagar.

The saffron party would also fight against the "stalled progress" of the state, he said, when asked about allegations of a tacit understanding between the BJP and the TRS.

On the proposed Grand Alliance of the Congress and other parties in the state, Shah said the Telugu people had not forgotten how the Congress had treated their leaders like former (undivided) Andhra Pradesh chief minister Anjaiah and former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.

Hitting out at the TRS, he claimed that the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party was earlier in favour of simultaneous elections to the state Assembly and Lok Sabha, but subsequently changed its stand.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed 'one nation, one election'. (Caretaker CM) Chandrasekhar Rao had also supported it initially.... I want to ask a straight question to the ruling party (TRS) and the chief minister. Why are you burdening the people with so much of expenditure (due to polls)? What is the reason for advancing the election by nine months?," Shah asked.

He wanted to know why the state Assembly was prematurely dissolved, just a few days after the chief minister had expressed his willingness for simultaneous polls.

Quoting from reports, the BJP chief said 4,200 farmers committed suicide in the state in the last four years and claimed that some of the schemes of the central government were not implemented in Telangana properly.

He said many poll promises such as the "double-bedroom housing scheme" were not fulfilled.

Shah said the Centre had allotted funds to the extent of Rs 2.30 lakh crore to Telangana under the 14th Finance Commission as against "a mere Rs 15,000 crore during the 13th Finance Commission".