HYDERABAD: Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday lashed out at Telangana’s ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) of cheating people from the weaker sections and declared that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will pick a leader from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) as the state’s chief minister if the party gets a majority.

Addressing an election rally at Suryapet, Shah said the ruling BRS had been cheating Dalits, tribals and the OBCs over the last nine-and-a-half years. “The BRS is anti-poor and anti-weaker sections, as it has failed to fulfil its promises made for their uplift, including distribution of three acres of land for each Dalit family,” he said.

The home minister recalled that BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao promised to make a Dalit the state’s chief minister if his party was voted to power in 2014. “He conveniently ignored his promise. He is now trying to project his son KT Rama Rao as his successor,” he said.

Shah said the BJP will name an OBC leader as the state’s chief minister if it wins power. “Can KCR make a similar announcement? He has not done anything for the OBCs during his regime,” he said, a reference to BRS chief and chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR.

Shah said the Congress and the BRS were political parties run with a single objective; the Congress wanted to make Rahul Gandhi the country’s Prime Minister and the BRS’s KCR wanted to make his son KTR the chief minister. “The BJP is the only party which strives for the welfare of the people and the development of the nation,” he said.

Shah said the BJP was committed to the development of tribals. “It was the Narendra Modi government at the Centre which sanctioned a central university for tribals in the name of tribal deities Sammakka and Saralamma,” he said

He said the Centre has announced updating of terms of conditions of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal to do justice to Telangana in Krishna water sharing. “We have also taken steps to create a National Turmeric Board to help Telangana farmers. We are providing safe drinking water to every household under the Jal Jeevan Mission,” he asserted.

Shah said the Modi government also created history by ensuring completion of the construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya in a record time and invited the people of Suryapet to attend the inaugural function in January.

KCR later didn’t respond to Amit Shah challenging him to go for an OBC chief minister but stressed that he led the most progressive and development-oriented government.

“Even in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own state of Gujarat, there has been no round-the-clock power supply to the farmers. Yet, the BJP national leaders are coming here and questioning our government,” KCR said at a rally in Mahabubabad.

The chief minister added that unlike the BJP-ruled states, there was no scarcity of fertilisers in Telangana and the farmers were getting money directly into their accounts after selling their produce.