As part of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) plans to expand the organisation outside Telangana by spreading the slogan of ‘ab ki baar, kisan sarkar’ (let’s install a farmers’ government this time), president of the party and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao visited Osmanabad and Solapur districts in Maharashtra on Monday and met people and local leaders en route.
Party leaders who accompanied Mr. Rao on his road journey from Hyderabad to Solapur stated that people gathered alongside roads on which the large convoy of the former with about 600 vehicles passed through villages and towns en route greeted the BRS chief, raised slogans hailing his leadership and showered flower petals.
Mr. Rao left his official residence Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad around 11 am along with several Ministers, Members of Parliament, legislators and party leaders and reached Solapur around 4 pm on a two-day visit to Maharashtra. Mr. Rao along with the entourage had lunch at Muram crossroads in Dharashiv (Osmanabad) district in the afternoon before proceeding on onward journey. At Muram, he was given a traditional welcome by women with ‘harathi’ (small diyas and flowers placed in a plate).
The Telangana Chief Minister’s convoy passed through Patancheru, Sangareddy, Sadashivapet and Zaheerabad in Telangana before entering Karnataka territory. In Karnataka, it passed by Mannaekhelli, Humanabad and Basava Kalyan towns.
People waited in large numbers on the outskirts of Solapur to welcome Mr. Rao. Greeting people in the city, he reached the residence of two-time former MP from Congress Dharmanna Sadul, who recently joined BRS, and had an informal chat with him on Maharashtra politics.
Ministers T. Harish Rao, S. Niranjan Reddy, G. Jagadish Reddy, V. Prashanth Reddy, K. Eshwar, E. Dayakar Rao, A. Indrakaran Reddy, T. Srinivas Yadav, V. Srinivas Goud, P. Sabitha Indra Reddy, Satyavathi Ratho, G. Kamalakar, MPs K. Keshava Rao, N. Nageswara Rao, J. Santosh Kumar and several MLAs, MLCs and party leaders accompanied Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao on his Maharashtra visit.
The BRS chief is expected to meet the weavers’ communities who migrated from Telangana and working in the handloom and powerloom industries there along with Bhivandi and Surat. A large number of weavers families from the erstwhile Warangal, Karimangar and Nizamabad districts are settled in Solapur.
Mr. Rao along with party leaders is scheduled offer prayers (participate in ‘puja’) at Rukmini-Vithobha mandir (temple) at Pandharpur on Tuesday morning and proceed to Sarkoli village located in between Pandharpur and Solapur, where several leaders of Maharashtra including senior leader of Solapur district Bhagirath Bhalke are expected to join BRS. Mr. Rao is likely to address the gathering there.
In the afternoon, he is scheduled to visit Tulja Bhavani temple at Tuljapur in Osmanabad district and would leave for Hyderabad after offering prayers there.
