No question of joining hands with BJP in LS poll: TRS leader

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi would not ally with the BJP or support it in the next Lok Sabha election as the regional party was secular and the two parties had "very strong differences of opinion", TRS leader and IT Minister K T Rama Rao said.

Rao, son of caretaker chief minister and TRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao, also dubbed as "maha ghatia bandhan" (weak combine) the proposed grand alliance of Congress, TDP and some other parties for the coming assembly election in the state.

He made the comments during an interaction on social media platform Twitter Thursday.

"We are an extremely secular party which carries people of all hues and shades and all sections of society. We don't believe in polarising based on community and based on any other criteria that divides us. So, the question of joining (hands with) BJP or aligning with them does not arise," Rama Rao said.

He was replying to a question if the TRS would support BJP in next year's Lok Sabha elections.

"We don't see eye-to-eye on a number of counts. In fact, we have very strong differences of opinion," he added.

He charged the Congress and the TDP with "doing great deal of injustice" to the people of the state, especially for those who championed the cause of statehood for Telangana.

According to him, the Congress and the TDP have given a "golden" opportunity to the people of Telangana to shoot two birds with one stone - hit the two parties with one vote.

My request is to vote them out of Telangana and ensure that TRS is elected again, he said.

He expressed hope the TRS would win the coming elections, necessitated by the premature dissolution of assembly by the party government, "very, very convincingly".

Rama Rao said he was focused on ensuring the return of party chief Rao as the chief minister.

He said the TRS was considering including an "unemployment allowance" in its election manifesto.

He also claimed that no government had done as much as their's for the youth, especially for the unemployed.

"We have already issued notifications for 90,000 (government) jobs to be filled in the last four years and nearly 40,000 recruitment has been done," he said.

As for government's criticism by some opposition parties, Rama Rao said political parties in a democracy have every right to criticise.

"...but unfortunately the main opposition (Congress), the principal opposition party in Telangana, has been stooping to new lows and body shaming my children...that is a new low in politics," he added.