Nizamabad MP K. Kavitha has dubbed the Congress leaders “corrupt and shameless” but their BJP counterparts were “liars”.
Unfortunately, the two party system at the helm at national level was a result of default politics which the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) was trying to check through a third neutral platform after the coming Parliament elections, Ms. Kavitha said on a visit to The Hindu office on Thursday.
In a free wheeling interview, the MP said it was high time that regional parties which the TRS was trying to bind on a neutral platform played a major role in national politics because both Congress and BJP had failed to deliver. “If it does not happen, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will float a national party as he announced at the public meeting in Karimnagar on Monday”. Ms. Kavitha said the TRS was focussed on regrouping regional parties en bloc and “things may escalate for them after May 23” when the election results are announced. She also did not rule out the possibility of Mr. Rao becoming Prime Minister if matters fell in place.
Asked to respond on the kind of relationship that the TRS will build with BJP if the latter returned to power, she said it will be the same working relationship as now. But, she expressed confidence that the TRS will change the narrative of polls and lead people to look for alternative to BJP and Congress.
Turmeric board
On her five-year term as MP, Ms. Kavitha said she had set a manifesto for herself which included four goals. Barring the setting up of turmeric board in Nizamabad where the crop was grown extensively, she said she achieved the other three goals of completing Nizamabad - Peddapalli railway line, giving potable drinking water at the doorsteps and doubling the ayacut of crop.
She said she had failed to convince the BJP-led NDA government to concede the turmeric board though the crop required special attention as it was labour intensive from sowing till harvest. It was on her insistence that the TRS leadership appointed her on the Parliamentary committee on commerce to pursue separate board for turmeric. Congress president Rahul Gandhi recognised the need for board but the BJP never responded to the demand.
Asked about the proposal of red jowar and turmeric farmers to file one thousand nominations against her from Nizamabad constituency as the TRS government failed to ensure minimum support price for the crop, she agreed that the farmers were in distress, no doubt, but MSP was a Central subject. “Why not they file 1,000 nominations against Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi?”, she asked.
