KCR Guided By “Tantriks”: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: In recent political developments in the country, Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao renamed his erstwhile party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Reacting to this, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that the TRS was led and guided by “tantriks” and soothsayers.

“TRS was formed to realise Telangana sentiment. Rao betrayed Telangana and changed TRS’s name to Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti (BRS) on the advice of tantriks,” Ms. Sitharaman said in a statement.

She further said that when the State was formed, Mr. Rao had talked about women’s empowerment, “but for four years from 2014 to 2018, there was not a single woman Minister in the TRS government”.

“KCR, on the advice of “tantriks” and numerologists, stopped going to the Secretariat, did not induct women for many years in his Cabinet, and now has changed the party’s name on their advice,” she said.

According to Ms. Sitharaman, the state under KCR’s rule went from having a revenue surplus to having a revenue deficit. She also noted that the state borrowed Rs 3 lakh rupees with a debt-to-GDP ratio of almost 25%.

Criticising the Kaleshwaram irrigation project, Ms. Sitharaman said, it was meant to be finished with a budget of Rs 40,000 crores but it had “shot up to Rs 1,40,000 crore without a proper explanation on the reasons for the escalation. ”On all fronts, the TRS government has totally failed.”