Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party were afflicted with a “disease” that causes “communal madness”, NDTV reported.

Rao, the caretaker chief minister of the state, blamed the Centre for keeping on hold the decision to raise reservations for Muslims in state government jobs and educational institutions from 4% to 12% and the quota for Scheduled Tribes from 6% to 10% even though the state Assembly has passed a resolution.

“Narendra Modi and the BJP have a disease...In everything they see, they see Hindu-Muslim [divide],” PTI quoted him as saying at a rally in the town of Narsampet in Warangal district. “They do not see anything else and so they did not do it [raise the quotas]...they have kept it pending.”

At a rally in Mahabubabad district, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi president said the Centre was suffering from “religious madness”. “Narendra Modi government has a disease,” he said. “That is minorities [versus] Hindus....they are in that state of ‘mataparamaina pichi’ [communal madness]. It is because of this they blocked reservations for scheduled tribes and Muslims.”

Rao, popularly known as KCR, promised to ensure that quotas would be raised if people elect Telangana Rashtra Samithi candidates from all the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state in next year’s General Elections. “Not only the Assembly elections...with kindness, help us win all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana,” he said. “Only if we win can we make Delhi bend its neck. We will get our ST reservation, we will get our Muslim reservation.”

He also lashed out at the Congress, saying it was no different from the BJP. “It does not matter which of the two parties forms the government at the Centre,” he added. “Their attitude is the same. Both Congress and the BJP want to concentrate all powers over states into their hands. This is their culture.”

KCR’s comments show ‘desperation for Muslim vote’, says BJP

The BJP said the caretaker chief minister’s statement indicates his “desperation” for Muslim votes.

BJP national spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said KCR had used ‘rabid, anti-Hindu politics’ as chief minister in the state. “The people of the state will teach him [KCR] a lesson for his Nizam-like rule with unconstitutional decisions like religion-based reservations and industrial corridors for Muslims,” the BJP spokesperson told PTI.

GVL Narasimha Rao said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s “tacit alliance” with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen proved his “true communal colours and politics of appeasement”.

The BJP spokesperson said the prime minister had adopted an inclusive “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas” governance principle.

Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Sagar Rao said, “If there is any brazen Muslim appeaser, it is KCR. In fact, he went to the extreme of praising foreign oppressor Nizam as a great ruler to be in the good books of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen brothers [Asaduddin and Akbaruddin Owaisi].”