The Telangana BJP on Friday gave Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao the tag of “bunking master” for once again skipping the meeting of Niti Aayog slated for tomorrow at the national capital.
In the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, however, flew to New Delhi right after completing his official programme of distributing more than 50,000 house pattas in Amaravati among poor women. He is expected to stay back and participate in the inauguration of the new Parliament building on Sunday.
Reddy, who managed to secure Rs 10,460 crore as revenue deficit compensation for 2014-15 again met the Union finance minister today before Niti Aayog’s meeting tomorrow.
Meanwhile, BJP’s state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar came up with a list of past programmes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi abstained by KCR. “Absent at Niti Aayog meeting, prime minister’s programmes, President’s dinner, Republic Day celebrations at Raj Bhavan, Southern Zonal council meeting,” he tweeted.
Stating that Rao does not even care to meet the common man, Bandi Sanjay went on to add, “KCR always disregards the federal structure, repeatedly insults Dr BR Ambedkar’s Constitution and fails to work in the interest of people.”
It may be noted here that Rao had boycotted the Niti Aayog meeting held last year on the grounds that the Centre was being dictatorial, burdening states with undesirable schemes. He had announced “Under serious protest I am boycotting the Niti Aayog”.
Although the chief minister’s office did not issue any statement in this matter, Rao apparently will be meeting Delhi Chief Minister Arvin Kejriwal tomorrow. The Telangana chief minister also seems to be busy chalking out programmes and preparing for the 21-day long celebrations of Telangana Formation Day as the state completed its ninth year of statehood.
Although Rao remained silent on the issue, BRS spokesperson responded to Bandi Sanjay’s tweet dismissing the Niti Ayog meeting as nothing more than a “photo-op” for the prime minister.
Meanwhile, a civil society organisation, Forum for Good Governance urged the chief minister to attend the meeting of the Niti Aayog pointing out that this does not augur well for the people of Telangana.
“The state government may be having differences with the Union government, but one of the forums to address the grievance is the Niti Aayog. Continuously boycotting the Niti Aayog will not augur well for the people of Telangana. The civil society has a reason to believe that personal ego was overtaking the interests of the state,” said the forum in its letter to the chief minister.