BJP, TRS two sides of same coin: Jairam Ramesh

Ramesh said the Bharat Jodo Yatra is not a 'Mann Ki Baat yatra' wherein long speeches are given, but it is a 'listening yatra' where people’s voices are heard

The ruling TRS in Telangana and BJP at the Centre are two sides of the same coin, while one is a Sultan in Delhi, the other is a Nizam in Hyderabad, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters here, the former union minister said time has come for Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s proposed national outfit 'Bharat Rashtra Samithi' (BRS) to become VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme). “It (Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo yatra) is not just a message to the BJP and RSS, but also to the TRS, which has the same face as the BJP. The BJP and the TRS are the two sides of the same coin. If you have a Sultan in Delhi, you have a Nizam in Hyderabad,” he said.

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There is no difference between the Sultan and Nizam. Hence, the message in Telangana is to the TRS that it is not time for BRS, but to take VRS, he further said in an apparent swipe at Rao.

He said there are three things that people are worried about today all over India, issues such as price rise, unemployment, GST, monopoly by one or two big companies and increasing economic inequalities.

The second concern is social polarisation as the society is allegedly being divided on the lines of religion, caste, language, food and dress. Whereas the third concern was political over centralisation. Ramesh said the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra is not a “Mann Ki Baat yatra” wherein long speeches are given, but it is a ”listening yatra” where people’s voices are heard.

Replying to a query, he claimed that the Congress is the only party which holds elections to elect its president. “Will there be elections in TRS? Will there be elections in the BJP?” he questioned.

Ramesh said the ongoing march will be halted for two days (October 4 and 5) on account of Dussehra and will resume from October 6 from Mandya in Karnataka and AICC President Sonia Gandhi is also expected to participate in it.

The Yatra will enter Telangana on October 24 and will cover 360 KM in the state. Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who also was in the press conference, ruled out any party or front other than Congress or BJP forming the government at the Centre.