Motkupalli attendance at CM KCR's all-party meet turns hot topic in BJP

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao's personal invitation to Motkupalli Narasimhulu to attend an all-party meeting on Dalit empowerment held on Sunday turned into a hot topic in the BJP party.

According to party sources, Narasimhulu had no party nod to attend the all-party meeting convened by the Chief Minister on Sunday.

Speaking to The Hans India, party sources said that the Telangana State BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar had convened a virtual meeting with all the stakeholders on the issue of participation of BJP in the meeting convened by the TRS chief.

"Majority of the 20 and odd leaders including the MLAs, Dalit, and senior leaders took part in the virtual meeting and have decided to boycott the CM's meeting." However, two leaders expressed the opinion to take part in the meeting and Motkupalli reportedly told that he had got a personal invitation from the Chief Minister to take part in the meeting, and he was positive about attending the meeting.

But, unlike a single leader party like TRS, BJP takes into confidence all the stakeholders while democratically deciding on the key issues observing internal democracy within the party structure.

The main objection to attending the meeting raised by the leaders was that the TRS had failed to deliver on its electoral promises made to Dalits on several counts for the past seven years. This includes distribution of three acres of land, housing, and strict adherence to the spending of allocated SC, ST Sub-Plan funds. That apart, the ruling party has also let down the STs in providing the reservations due to them on par with the population linking it to the minority reservations.

A senior BJP party leader said the leaders at the meeting called by the BJP State chief felt that the TRS chief calling all party leaders was meant to bury all his earlier electoral promises. And, making them endorse his new plans in the name of Dalit empowerment. "The carry forward funds meant for the SC and STs stands at about Rs 35,000 crore. The State government might have allocated at least Rs 10,000 crore, to begin with. But the State government has announced a mere Rs 1,200 crore. Now, the leaders who participated in the CM's meeting ended up in an embarrassing situation," he added.

The party leaders sensed the political maneuvers ahead of a by-poll by the TRS and thus have decided not to participate and continue to raise the issues concerning the Dalits, he said.

It was against this backdrop boycotting the all-party meeting convened by the Chief Minister was a well-reasoned majority decision after due deliberations. Whether Motkupalli Narasimhulu wanted to ignore the party decision due to his personal rapport with the TRS chief or, there is some more than what meets the eyes is to be seen in the days to come, the party sources pointed.