Speaking to ET, Rao said, “There have been three general elections since the formation of Telangana and we have never aligned with any party. There is no change in that position. We will not align with the BJP.”
Rao’s sister Kavitha Kalvakuntla, who has rebelled and formed her own outfit, has accused leaders close to her father, K Chandrasekhar Rao, founder of the BRS, of pushing the party towards the BJP. Though Rao said there would be no alliance with the BJP, he said his party would support the BJP government’s fresh move to bring a delimitation bill if there is a proportionate increase in the number of seats for southern states. “Southern states account for 24% of the representation in Lok Sabha. If there is an overall increase in the number of seats proportionately, then we will have no problem supporting the delimitation bill,” said Rao. BRS has three Rajya Sabha MPs.
The BRS has been providing issue-based support to the BJP at the Centre. “We had supported BJP on GST, but so had Congress. We supported BJP on demonetisation and that was a mistake. We all make mistakes and we learn,” said Rao.
The BRS has decided to take up deletions from electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. Telangana has seen almost 21% of names deleted, with the highest number of deletions reported from Hyderabad.
