In a scathing attack on Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, BJP national president JP Nadda, on Thursday, accused him of driving the revenue surplus state into a debt trap. The accusation was followed by Rao’s allegation that the Central government’s policies have caused huge revenue loss for Telangana.

Nadda was addressing a public rally at Karimnagar on the conclusion of the Praja Sangram Yatra, an outreach programme taken up by the BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar in five phases.

Nadda said Telangana was once a surplus state but has been pushed into debt of Rs 3.29 lakh crore. “KCR claims Telangana is the richest state. I want to correct him and say Telangana was rich but you have made it a poor state and put it under debt,” he said.

Raking up the Delhi Liquor Scam probe Nadda wondered why KCR’s daughter was being interrogated by various investigative agencies. “He had promised 2 BHK houses but he made his own farm house while denying the poor their right to free housing,” accused Nadda. He also alleged that the Centre’s funds were being used up by the state government claiming the schemes to be its own. Citing the instance of the state government changing the name of wellness centres funded by the Centre to basti dawa khana he said: “Those who cheat are not the original they are just duplicates. I want to tell KCR you are duplicate and we are the original.” At one point Nadda referred to Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao as Keshav Chandrasekhar Rao, probably confusing him with K Keshav Rao, the TRS MP in Rajya Sabha. Taking a dig at the new avatar of TRS he said the party’s name has been changed from TRS to BRS but they will now be given VRS by the public. BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar even referred to the BRS as Bar and Restaurant Service.

On his way to Karimnagar rally ground there was an attempt by BRS supporters to stop JP Nadda’s convoy chanting slogans of “Go back”. An angry Nadda asked the chief minister where was the democracy he had promised to the people of the state. Meanwhile the chief minister remained in Delhi meeting various leaders and supporters throughout the day after inaugurating the new party office yesterday.