Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hit the ground running for the BJP in poll-bound Telangana, accusing the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) of corruption and nepotism.

Addressing a packed rally in Nizamabad, the Prime Minister claimed that KCR wanted to join the NDA and even met him with a request to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. According to the PM, he rejected the request on grounds of his “misdeeds”.

“I want to reveal a secret today. When BJP won 48 seats in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, KCR needed support. Before this election, he used to welcome me at the airport, but later suddenly he stopped doing so. After the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections in 2020, KCR came to meet me in Delhi and said that he wanted to join NDA. He also asked me to extend support to him. I told him (KCR) that due to his deeds Modi cannot be associated with him,” PM Modi said.

PM Modi said that his refusal to allow the BRS entry into the NDA bloc left KCR “rattled” and that his behaviour towards him changed dramatically. “They (the BRS) got angry then. He (KCR) came back again. He told me he had done a lot of work and now wants to give all responsibility to KTR (KT Rama Rao, his son and a Telangana minister). ‘I will send KTR, you please bless him’, KCR told me…” the Prime Minister said.

PM Modi then went on to claim that he had reprimanded KCR over his remarks and told him that he was no king and that we are a democracy. “I said, ‘KCR, this is democracy. Who are you to give KTR everything? Are you a king?’ After that he never came before me. He is unable to face me,” the Prime Minister said.

“No corrupt person can sit next to me,” he said, adding that he told KCR that he would not cheat the people of Telangana.

The Prime Minister also accused the BRS government of turning “loktantra” (democracy) into “loot-tantra” (systematic corruption). “The BJP government at the Centre had given money to the BRS-led government here for the development of Telangana but unfortunately, BRS indulged in looting the money sent for the welfare of the state,” he said.