Ruling TRS in Telangana to work with Prashant Kishor's I-PAC
Hyderabad, Apr 25: The ruling TRS in Telangana will work with Prashant Kishor-founded I-PAC to augment the party's efforts to reach out to the electorate, even as party sources claimed he is no more associated with the organisation, amid speculations of his joining the Congress and also holding parleys with TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
TRS Working President and state Minister KT Ramarao replied in the affirmative when asked if I-PAC and not Kishor would work with his party.
With the Telangana Rashtra Samiti deciding to work with I-PAC, the opposition BJP on Monday claimed it is now clear that the ruling party and Congress would come together for the next assembly elections, due in 2023.
The TRS would work with the Indian Political Action Committee to complement the party's efforts to reach out to the electorate, especially the young ones, party sources said. Kishor has already disassociated himself with the I-PAC, they claimed.
I-PAC is working with multiple parties in the country, they said.
Earlier, on Saturday and Sunday, Kishor had held talks with Rao here over contemporary political situation, even as the political strategist is understood to have submitted the details of the surveys done by his team in Telangana.
Meanwhile, seeking to put the Congress and TRS in a spot, BJP spokesperson in Telangana, Krishna Saagar Rao on Monday said it is almost official now that TRS and Congress would be in a pre-poll alliance in Telangana for next year's assembly elections.
"Yesterday's meeting between CM KCR and Prashant Kishor and their subsequent statements have established that this alliance is firmed up between KCR and Sonia Gandhi," he said in a statement.
BJP would be fighting "TRS and Congress alliance" in the next elections, he said.
"This uncouth, corrupt and opportunistic alliance will be rejected by the people of Telangana," he said.
Hitting out at Kishor, the BJP leader alleged that the election strategist "is a chronic flirter of multiple parties and ideologies".
Meanwhile, AICC in-charge of party affairs in Telangana and MP Manickam Tagore put out a tweet, apparently referring to the latest developments, saying "never trust someone who is friends with your enemy". "Is it correct," he asked.
Amid speculation that he would join Congress, Kishor has held talks with KCR at the latter's camp office-cum-official residence here during the last two days.
KCR said in March that Kishor is working with him on bringing a 'parivartan' (change) in the entire country. Both were working together in Telangana also.
The Telangana CM had described Kishor as his best friend for the last seven-eight years and praised the latter for his commitment to a cause.
The TRS chief has been working to bring together various non-BJP parties against the saffron party's alleged anti-people policies and to usher in a "qualitative change" in the country.
Describing Kishor as a brand with proven credentials, Congress general secretary Tariq Anwar on Thursday last said the poll strategist is willing to join the party without any preconditions and his induction would certainly help the grand old organisation.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Anwar had said, wants to take senior leaders into confidence and seek their opinion on whether Kishor's entry into the party will be beneficial or not and then take a decision on the much speculated issue.
Kishor, who has planned the electoral strategies of various parties, including the Trinamool Congress, AAP and DMK, wants to come into the Congress and help it, Anwar had said.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
