Didn't let KCR join NDA: PM at Telangana rally

New Delhi, October 3

In a revelation that is set to raise political heat in election-bound Telangana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he had refused Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s overtures to join the NDA after the declaration of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation results in December 2020, a “reason the BRS president is angry with me”.

For long now, Rao has not been following the protocol of receiving PM Modi during the latter’s official visits to the state. Addressing a rally in Telangana’s Nizamabad, the PM said: “After the Hyderabad MC election results, KCR came to Delhi to meet me, honoured me with a shawl and showered affections uncharacteristic of him… I asked him what else he wanted and he said he wanted the BJP’s support in Hyderabad MC”. He further said he declined KCR’s offer saying, “I can never align with you even if it means sitting in the opposition in the MC.” Modi said it was after this episode that KCR was rattled and started distancing himself.