BJP to go it alone in Telangana, to contest in all 17 Lok Sabha seats: Bandaru Dattatreya

Hyderabad: The BJP would go it alone in Telangana for the upcoming general elections and contest in all the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state, senior party leader Bandaru Dattatreya said on Sunday.

Asserting that his party is making efforts to cross 400 Lok Sabha seats this time, the former Union minister and an MP from Secunderabad claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a corruption-free government and his image and popularity continues to rise.

"The BJP will independently contest in all the 17 Lok Sabha seats. The Assembly election was a totally different scenario. This is is parliamentary election and we are confident," Dattatreya, the lone BJP MP from Telangana, told reporters here.

In the December Assembly polls in Telangana, BJP managed to win only one out of 120 seats. Dattatreya alleged that opposition leaders are involved in one scam or the other and they are "criticising" Modi only to garner votes of minorities.

Be it Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu or Telangana Chief Minister and TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao, no opposition leader can match him, he claimed.

According to Dattatreya, nearly 40 crore people have benefited from various welfare schemes launched by the Modi government, including around 16 crore who had benefited from the MUDRA Yojana alone.

"We are making efforts to cross 400 Lok Sabha seats. We are confident BJP will come to power and Modiji will again become Prime Minister," he said.

Dattatreya said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will on February 5 take part in the BJP's cluster meeting of Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Malkajgiri parliamentary seats here and Amit Shah is expected to visit the state on February 13 to review the party's poll preparedness.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several central ministers are also likely to visit Telangana in the coming days, he said.

Dattatreya slammed the TRS government in Telangana for not implementing Central schemes including the PMJAY health insurance scheme in Telangana.

The Telangana government will get Rs 3,000 crore towards the 'Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi', under which Rs 6,000 will be transferred into bank accounts of farmers holding up to two hectares land, he said and demanded the TRS government to separately implement the Centre's scheme and its 'Rythu Bandhu' scheme.

Under Rythu Bandhu, an agriculture investment support scheme, the Telangana government is providing farmers Rs 4,000 per acre per season for purchase of inputs like seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, twice a year -- for rabi and kharif seasons.