Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao to visit Maharashtra's Sangli on Aug 1

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will visit the birthplace of noted Marathi poet and social reformer Annabhau Sathe in Maharashtras Sangli district on Tuesday reported news agency PTINoted Marathi poet and social reformer Annabhau Sathe was born at Wategaon in Sangli on August 1 1920 He died on July 18 1969Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao also known as KCR will visit Wategaon on August 1 said a release issued by the Maharashtrabased Shetkari Sanghatana a profarmer organisation reported PTIA team of the farmers organisation met Rao on Saturday over various issues pertaining to cultivators it saidRao last month visited Maharashtras Solapur and Osmanabad districtsAfter renaming his Telangana Rashtra Samithi as Bharat Rashtra Samithi BRS in December last year Rao has been making efforts to strengthen the party in neighbouring MaharashtraHe has addressed public meetings at Nanded and other places in Maharashtra highlighting his Telangana model of developmentAddressing a rally in Sarkoli village some 20 km from Pandharpur Rao asserted that they are a team of farmers marginalised communities minorities and Dalits and wondered why there is a ldquohue and cryrdquo over his partyrsquos efforts to expand its base in the neighbouring stateAbout his Pandharpur visit Rao said when they planned to offer prayers at the temple they were advised to avoid doing politicsldquoI refrained from discussing politics in Pandharpur However here I will talk about it I fail to understand why there is such a hue and cry among the parties in Maharashtra about us Why do they fear us as no party is leaving any opportunity to criticise us he askedRao slammed what he called the tendency to label BRS as a Bteam of other partiesldquoCongress calls us the Bteam of BJP while BJP calls us the Ateam of Congress We are not anyonersquos team We are a team of farmers marginalised communities minorities and Dalitsrdquo he assertedHe also emphasised that BRS is not just a regional party tied to Telangana but is a national party with a mission to bring about a change in IndiaRao said that every major party in Maharashtra has had the opportunity to govern the stateldquoThe Congress ruled Maharashtra for 50 years You gave chances to NCP BJP and Shiv Sena If they genuinely wanted to work for the statersquos welfare at least one of them could have done sordquo he saidThe BRS chief said that the schemes successfully rolled out in Telangana can be easily implemented in Maharashtra He questioned why Maharashtra couldnrsquot replicate the farmercentric welfare programmes implemented by TelanganaldquoIf Telangana can implement such schemes for the welfare of farmers why canrsquot Maharashtrardquo he askedRao said claims are being made that whatever is being shown in Telangana is a lsquobhul bhulaiyarsquo maze and if Maharashtra implements their schemes the state will turn bankrupt lsquodiwalarsquoldquoI would like to assert here that yes there is be diwala and it will be of political leaders But there will be Diwali prosperity for the farmersrdquo he saidWith inputs from PTI