Country needs new economic, agricultural models: KCR

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who has been making efforts to forge a non-Congress, non-BJP front, said Saturday the country needed new economic and agricultural models as the present system did not work.

"We are not in a hurry for the election. It is in the process. I say it will certainly have its implications on the present political system. 100 per cent! Definitely, we will achieve some goal much before the election and we will continue to pursue the cause. It's a national cause," Rao told reporters.

The chief minister, who met his West Bengal and Odisha counterparts, Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik respectively, this week, alleged that the Congress and the BJP have failed miserably in meeting the expectations of people.

"The country needs a new economic model, the country needs a new agricultural model. The present system does not work. These parties have miserably failed. I am very, very open. I am not afraid of anybody. It will continue. I think another 15 days to go. Some of my friends told me that wait for some time. We will sit down and chalk out a programme," he said.

Hitting out at Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Rao said the TDP chief was the "dirtiest politician" in the country who does "cheap politics" for power.

"What I started is not for cheap politics like you.... What I talked about was an Indian federal front. I am stressing that the federal front (should be) without Congress, without the BJP. I am meeting people and leaders for that," he said. Naidu was earlier critical about Rao's efforts over the federal front.

"Does Naidu have any idea about the models for governance that he was proposing?" the TRS chief asked.

Rao alleged that Naidu did not have any consistency in politics as he was part of the NDA and later criticised the coalition after coming out of it.

Naidu, who once questioned the benefit of special status for Andhra Pradesh, is now claiming to be fighting for it, Rao said. The TDP president is "not a leader, but only a manager," he alleged.
Saying that the IT sector grew in Hyderabad because of the geographical and other advantages of the city, Rao accused Naidu of falsely claiming credit for it.

Commenting on the TDP-Congress alliance against the TRS in the recent Assembly election, Rao said Naidu would certainly get a "return gift" from him and claimed that the TDP would lose in the upcoming Assembly election in Andhra Pradesh.

He dismissed criticism against the TRS government over protecting the interests of backward classes in the coming rural local body elections and said the Congress and the BJP were not sincere in their cause.
The Congress leaders are behaving with "idiocy" on the issue, he alleged.

Rao said he had been asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also former prime minister Manmohan Singh to form a ministry for the welfare of the backward classes, but, he added, they did not do it.