Will befriend Modi; No confrontation with Naidu: TRS

TRS would forge a good and healthy relationship with the Narendra Modi government and not be confrontationist with the successor state of Andhra Pradesh, but at the same time it will fight for the rights of Telangana, a key party figure said today.

K T Rama Rao, Sircilla MLA and son of TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao who is all set to become Telangana's first Chief Minister, said his party government would do everything in its capacity to ensure a good and healthy relationship with the Centre and expressed hope that the latter would be supportive of the newly carved State of Telangana. 

He said Modi rang up Chandrasekhar Rao yesterday, congratulated him on TRS victory in Telangana and invited him to attend his swearing in ceremony. " We are thinking about it (whether to attend the ceremony. So, definitely, we would like to befriend the new Prime Minister and his team and we would like to work together in the next five years, irrespective of what ideological and political differences we have. Its time for all of us to get our act together because ultimately people have voted for him and us.," And therefore time for us to work, KTR, as he is popularly known, said in an interview.

TRS, which fought the elections on its own without succumbing to the temptation of having an electoral alliance with Congress, is flying high after storming to power with a haul of 63 seats in the 119-member Telangana Assembly and bagging 11 out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in what's going to be the country's 29th state on June two.

Asked if TRS would extend issue-based support to the Central government, he said: I didn't say that. All I am saying is... We will be supportive of the central government and we are hopeful that the central government will be supportive of the newly created State. I am not talking political support, I am not talking moral support. All I am saying is like how you should work...how central government should work with state government what healthy relationship should exist between a State and the Centre.

Listing priorities of the new government, he said 1100 families who lost their members in the pro-statehood agitation would be given Rs ten lakh support and employment for one of their members.
 
KTR said the TRS government would seek to correct injustices done in the united Andhra Pradesh primarily in the areas of irrigation, education and employment.    We have ambitious plans for the next five years, he said.     There would be a combination of welfare and development-driven initiatives. The under-privileged, destitute, senior citizens and physically challenged would get monthly pensions. Focus would be on BPL families neglected in the past, he said.