Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday targeted the K Chandrashekhar Rao led Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi claiming the party to be a "B-team" of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. "Congress has always stood against BJP in Parliament, but KCR's party has acted like BJP's B-team," Rahul said while addressing a public rally in Telangana's Khammam. "CM K Chandrashekar Rao thinks he is king and Telangana his kingdom; his party BRS is like BJP Rishtedar Samiti," he added.
"PM Narendra Modi carries remote control of Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao."
Giving a word of encouragement to the party workers, the former Congress MP said, "party workers are like our Babbar Sher (lions), I salute all of them."
Speaking about his Bharat Jodo Yatra, he said, "We spoke about uniting the country during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The entire country supported the Yatra showing that they do not support the spread of hatred and violence but uniting the country."
"Khammam is Congress' stronghold and the people have always shown their support. The people here understand our ideology...Telangana was a dream, the dream of the poor, farmer and labourer. For 9 years TRS tried to crush this dream. Now the TRS has changed its name to BRS- BJP Ristedar Samithi...," he added.
Ahead of the event, the Congress party alleged that the police and government machinery were creating hurdles at the behest of Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi for the people attending Gandhi's public meeting.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and MP A Revanth Reddy spoke to state DGP Anjani Kumar about the issue, reported PTI quoting party sources as saying.
Congress MLA D Sridhar Babu alleged that local BRS leadership was acting in an undemocratic manner in an attempt to make the rally a failure, while another Congress MLA D Anasuya, popularly known as Seethakka, accused the BRS government of not letting the state-run Road Transport Corporation (RTC) buses to be hired for transporting people to the event.
"It is deplorable that the government machinery set up check posts and stopped private vehicles in which people were coming to the meeting," she said.
The public meeting in Khammam, about 200 km from Hyderabad, is being held for the Congress to sound the poll bugle for the Legislative Assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year, and as a culmination of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka's 'padayatra'.