Journalism of Courage
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is all set to address a massive public meeting at Khammam on Wednesday evening. The meeting, scheduled to begin at 5 pm, will also be attended by national Opposition heavyweights, sending out a message to the BJP.
All roads leading to Khammam are choked with traffic as thousands of vehicles with supporters of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) proceed to the venue. This is the first mega public rally of the CM, popularly known as KCR, since his party changed its name from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
Before arriving in Khammam, KCR and the top Opposition leaders visited the Yadagirigutta in two helicopters to offer prayers at a temple. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, CPI national general secretary D. Raja, state ministers Vemula Prashanth Reddy and Talasani Srinivas Yadav, MP Joginapally Santosh Kumar, and MLC K Kavitha were also present. KCR and the Opposition leaders will fly to Khammam from Yadadri in two choppers.
The public meeting has been billed as a massive show of strength and a precursor to the formation of an anti-BJP alliance ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Telangana, where the BJP is trying to establish itself as an alternative to the BRS, will go to polls later this year.
State minister T Harish Rao said BRS and the other party leaders would send a “loud and clear message to the BJP” that they were ready to face it and throw a challenge. “The entire BRS leadership including state and district level leaders will attend the meeting. At least five lakh people are expected to attend. It will surpass the meeting held at Karimnagar in 2001 when the TRS was launched,” said the minister.
For the meeting, BRS leaders have mobilised cadre from the 10 Assembly constituencies of the former Khammam district and four other nearby districts.
At the rally, KCR will outline his national vision for his party and announce farmer-friendly policies. Several leaders of farmer unions and associations will attend the meeting.
BRS leaders said the transformation of the TRS to the BRS was drawing attention and response from all corners of the country as an alternative political force under the leadership of KCR.
