Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy stood up to be counted on a day the BJP was going big with the 'Modi ka Pariwar" campaign on social media. "Hamare hisaab se Pradhan Mantri matlab bade bhai (According to us, Prime Minister means elder brother)," Mr Reddy said in Adilabad, where he had gone to receive Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Telangana. Then he made his context clear -- that states cannot prosper without the Prime Minister's help and he wanted to bring Telangana on par with Gujarat.
"Only with his (PM Modi's) help can Chief Ministers take their states forward. It is my request that if Telangana has to progress, if it has to move ahead like Gujarat, your help is required," he said at Adilabad, where he shared dais with the Prime Minister.
To reach the Prime Minister's goal of a 5 trillion dollar economy, India needs five metropolitan cities.
"Hyderabad wants to contribute. Please support us in the Metro rail... Just as you developed the Sabarmati river, we want to regenerate our Musi river," Mr Reddy said to cheers from the audience at gathering where PM Modi laid the launched or laid foundation for Rs 6,697 crore worth of projects.
Mr Reddy said it is the people who ultimately lose when there is friction between the Centre and the states. Politics should be limited to elections only and after the polls the elected leaders should thrive for the development of the state with the help of the Centre, he added.
In a marked departure from the tradition of his predecessor K Chandrasekhar Rao, the Congress Chief Minister flew to the Adilabad airport early this morning to receive the Prime Minister, keeping the traditional protocol.
His address, many said, was a textbook example of political sagacity. He knows the Modi development story has many takers. Instead of being critical of it, he publicly announced that he wants to be a part of it, openly declaring that he will not be on a political warpath, taking a confrontationist approach against the Centre.
Mr Rao, who was the chief of Bharat Rashtra Samithi, had skipped PM Modi's official visits to the state on several occasions. He suffered a massive defeat at the hands of the Congress in the state elections last year, and was replaced by Mr Reddy, who had led his party's campaign.
The Prime Minister greeted Mr Reddy warmly and shook hands with him after his address. But that did not stop him from attacking the Congress, along with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi. "Changing name from TRS to BRS did not change anything, changing BRS government with a Congress government did not change anything either," he said.
PM Modi also made a reference to the Kaleshwaram project, saying that even though the Congress has been criticising BRS for alleged big-ticket corruption in the irrigation project, they were not making sensitive documents public.
The Prime Minister inaugurated infrastructure projects to the tune of Rs 6,697 crore and dedicated a second unit of NTPC plant worth Rs 6000 crore.
Tomorrow, he opens the Civil Aviation Research Organisation at Begumpet and launches over Rs 9000 projects in Sangareddy, where it will be followed by a public meeting.