Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma are among the leaders who wished Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao "a long, healthy and happy life" on his birthday on Thursday.
KCR (68) has taken an aggressive stand against the BJP and the central government and is advocating a need of like-minded regional parties to unite “to throw the BJP into the Bay of Bengal.”
The Telangana CM's verbal attacks in recent days were especially blistering on Modi and Sarma.
In his Union budget reaction earlier this month, KCR called Modi a “short-sighted” person and his government “mindless.” KCR even mocked the PM's attires, appearances when visiting the states. The CM commented that “in election time, Modi grows a beard like Rabindranath Tagore, wears lungi in Tamil Nadu, turban in Punjab, local headgear in Manipur and some other topi in Uttarakhand.”
“How many caps (he will don) like this? What good does the country achieve with such gimmicks?” KCR questioned at a press conference on 1 February, while terming the union budget a "golmaal".
Last week, KCR targeted his Assam counterpart for his remarks on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Stating that Sarma's questioning of “Rahul's parentage” as "shameful, going against the Hindu culture and Indian traditions", KCR demanded the BJP and Modi to sack Sarma.
“May Maa Kamakhya and Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardev bless you with good health and a long life,” Sarma tweeted on Thursday.
While Modi sent out his wishes on the social media platform, CMO sources said that the PM also “personally called KCR over the phone and conveyed the birthday greetings.”
Greeting on Twitter, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin wrote that KCR is “persistently fighting for the rights of the states and regional autonomy.” “Let us all work to protect the cooperative federalism and the dignity of states guaranteed by the Constitution,” Stalin, who also called KCR, added.
KCR has been stating that he is in correspondence with Stalin, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, etc for his proposed alternative front to the BJP and Congress.
Andhra Pradesh present and former Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan are among others who wished KCR.
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