Hyderabad : Launching a diatribe against Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday evening called Naidu the “dirtiest politician in India", and also questioned his political stand against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Rao’s remarks came after he met Odisha and West Bengal chief ministers Naveen Patnark and Mamata Banerjee earlier this week to discuss his idea to float a non-BJP and non-Congress front.

“Who are you bluffing? What are you saying? You were sitting beside (prime minister) Narendra Modi for four years and one fine day you had a problem so now you want everyone to sit with Rahul Gandhi? Chandrababu Naidu is the dirtiest politician in India and he should feel ashamed about what he is saying," said the Telangana Chief Minister while addressing a press conference on Saturday at his camp office. He added that Naidu does not have a consistent (political) policy.

After Rao met Patnaik and Banerjee to discuss the idea of his federal front, he did not disclose any more details about what transpired or what the outcome was. He was also supposed to meet Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati in New Delhi later, but the meeting did not take place. Prior to this, Rao had talked about the front close to five months ago and even met several national leaders like Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham’s M. K. Stalin, etc.

Rao also censured Naidu stating that the latter changed his stance on demanding the special category status for AP over the last four years. “You will say that you don’t want the SCS and now you will say that you want it?" he questioned, and further alleged that Naidu had hurriedly asked for the bifurcation of the High Court (AP and Telangana will have separate High Courts from 1 January, 2019) even without having the required infrastructure.

“When I was fighting for Telangana I had only two MPs. I am not a chillar politician like you. I am talking about a federal front and I am meeting people for that. I can’t say everything. I called economists home and spoke with them for four hours. Naidu is just a manager. We started Rythu Bandhu and the whole country is following it," Rao said.

His party, the TRS, came to power with a thumping majority earlier this month on 11 December after winning 88 of the 119 assembly seats, defeating the Congress-led grand alliance.

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