Telangana polls 2018: 'Modi factor' led TRS to advance polls: J P Nadda

The ruling TRS in Telangana advanced the assembly election to avoid the situation of having to face the 'Modi factor' in case they were to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls according to the original schedule, BJP leader J P Nadda alleged Monday.

The TRS and its president K Chandrasekhar Rao had not given any satisfactory answers to the question of why it advanced the election and "put a burden on the exchequer", the Union Health Minister told reporters here.

The state will have to vote again in the Lok Sabha polls next year, noted Nadda, the BJP's in-charge for the Telangana assembly elections.

"The whole party is not answering the real question", he said, adding, there would not have been any scope for TRS "to be saved" if simultaneous elections were held with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's persona dominating the poll scene.

The TRS has, in a way, thrust the election on Telangana people to perpetuate their "dynastic rule", he alleged.

"It is clear that the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is more popular than the leadership in Telangana," Nadda said.

The reason given by Rao that he dissolved the assembly because Public Interest Litigations (PILs) were filed in courts and that there was idiocy and political "fragility", itself is "idiocy", he alleged.

"This answer itself is idiocy. A Chief Minister has to understand that as it is his responsibility to govern, it is the responsibility of the opposition to oppose on ideas, on policies, on programmes," Nadda said.

PILs would be filed whichever party was in power,he said.

"It is not idiocy. It is his idiocy," he said.

The TRS government has failed on all fronts and youth are frustrated with its performance, he alleged.

They had not joined the 'Ayushman Bharat' health insurance scheme of the NDA government for "sheer political reasons," Nadda alleged.

The NDA government was willing to provide Rs 172 crore per year as Central share, but the people of Telangana have been deprived of the scheme's benefit for political reasons, he said.

On the spread of Zika virus in Rajasthan, Nadda said the Health Ministry has 'a wonderful surveillance system', which enabled it to detect the cases.