Telangana Chief Minister KCR targets Chandrababu Naidu

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao has lashed out at his counterpart in Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, calling him a “thief and a traitor”. “People should not support the traitor of Telangana,” he said, addressing a public meeting in Nizamabad on Wednesday evening.

Mr Rao, popularly known as KCR, tore into Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) for its alliance with the Congress. “If you were desperate, you should have asked me, I would have given you a few seats,” said KCR, also making a direct reference to the note-for-vote case involving allegations that the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister tried to bribe a nominated lawmaker for the Member of the Legislative Council elections in 2015. Mr Naidu was apparently heard on tape offering inducement to the lawmaker.

“He is an evil person, a thief who got caught. Do we want such a person to still rule us? Aren’t the years of enslavement that we suffered enough? We no longer need to be slaves to Delhi and Andhra,” the Chief Minister said. Revanth Reddy, a former TDP leader who is now the working president of Telangana Congress, had been caught on camera allegedly offering money to the lawmaker on behalf of Mr Naidu. Mr Reddy had even gone to jail and is now facing Income Tax raids. Yesterday, Mr Reddy and his associate were questioned for over four hours by the I-T department.