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TELANGANA Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s two-day pilgrimage to Pandharpur starting Monday has turned into a show of strength.
Days after Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties questioned the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader’s intentions behind making a serious push into Maharashtra, saying this would undermine the Opposition’s unity bid against the BJP, KCR drove into the state in a 600-car convoy – bringing with him several of his ministers, BRS MLAs and BRS office-bearers.
After a night halt at Pandharpur, KCR and his team – perhaps the largest such led by a CM of any state to the pilgrim town – will visit the revered Lord Vitthal temple shrine. The BRS spokesperson said while the CM wanted to be part of the annual Pandharpur pilgrimage, he would along the way meet people.
BRS sources claimed the convoy was nearly 6 km long by the time it reached the Hyderabad-Solapur National Highway 65.
The BRS had also sought permission to shower rose petals on warkaris, the pilgrims who walk to the Vithhal temple, during this time. While the Maharashtra government denied permission for this, CM Eknath Shinde said they welcomed KCR visiting the temple.
“The doors of Pandharpur temple are open to all… How can anybody stop anybody from worshipping Lord Vitthal?” he said.
Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said: “If anybody is coming to participate in the pilgrimage, we welcome it. (But) they should keep politics away.”
The Pandharpur visit is seen as another move by KCR to expand the BRS beyond Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, with the slogan ‘Abki Baar Kisan Sarkar’. The BRS has held rallies in Marathwada and Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and set up an office in Nagpur, the city with the RSS headquarters, with plans to open more in Pune, Aurangabad and Mumbai.
While this was earlier seen as part of KCR’s bid to emerge as a national force, he seems to have changed his plans after the Karnataka win of the BRS’s main rival Congress, and has announced that he would concentrate on home for now.
This has led to charges from Opposition leaders that KCR is “the BJP’s B team”. A senior NCP leader said: “The BRS’s politics appears to be to dent the MVA vote bank, and to boost the BJP’s prospects in Maharashtra. ”
Denying this, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said, “The BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde) are alliance partners. We are confident of contesting and winning the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls (next year).”
On Monday, on the way to Maharashtra, KCR stopped near Omerga village in Dharashiv district to interact with locals and have lunch. In the evening at Solapur, he welcomed local leaders into the BRS.
with ENS, Hyderabad
