No alliance with BJP ahead of 2028 Telangana polls: BRS Working President KTR
Sonipat (Haryana), Sept 16 (TNT): Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Working President and former Telangana Minister K T Rama Rao on Wednesday ruled out any alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2028 Telangana Assembly elections, while indicating that his party could support a delimitation exercise if Lok Sabha seats are increased proportionately.
Addressing students at O P Jindal Global University here, KTR said there would be “no alliance with the BJP” when asked about the possibility of an electoral tie-up ahead of the Telangana polls.
On the issue of delimitation, he said the BRS would have no objection to supporting a delimitation bill if the overall increase in Lok Sabha seats was carried out proportionately.
“Southern states account for 24 per cent of the representation in Lok Sabha. If there is an overall increase in the number of seats proportionately, then we will have no problem supporting the delimitation bill,” he said.
KTR was speaking at a Distinguished Public Lecture on “Innovation in Governance: The Story of a Startup State”, during which he also responded to questions on politics, public policy and emerging technologies.
He outlined Telangana’s development journey and spoke about governance, infrastructure and public services, besides highlighting initiatives in irrigation, agriculture, drinking water and power.
Referring to the Kaleshwaram Project, KTR described it as an engineering response to the challenge of taking Godavari water to drought-prone regions of Telangana.
He also cited an increase in rice production from about 44.4 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to 168.8 lakh tonnes in 2023-24.
KTR also highlighted the State’s innovation ecosystem, referring to T-Hub, WE-Hub, T-Works and TASK, and cited space-tech firm Skyroot as an example of the ecosystem supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.
On artificial intelligence, he said apprehensions had accompanied every major technological transition and called for adoption of emerging technologies.
The lecture was followed by an interactive session with students, who raised questions on politics, delimitation, public policy and technology.
Earlier, O P Jindal Global University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr C Raj Kumar welcomed KTR.
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