Watch Nidhi Razdan: In India KCR moves close to the BJP

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Transcript

00:00So, what's going on with KCR or K Chandrasekhar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana and the

00:09head of the BRS party. Well, KCR used to be one of the staunchest critics of the BJP and

00:15of Mr Modi in particular, so much so that he refused to receive Mr Modi at the airport

00:20when he came to visit Hyderabad a couple of times, and has also been skipping meetings

00:24that the central government has been calling such as those of the Niti Aayog. But all of

00:28that has recently changed. A couple of weeks ago, he called Mr Modi a good friend and in

00:33recent rallies, he's been attacking the Congress instead of the BJP while also ending his party's

00:39boycott of meetings called by the centre. So, what explains this turnaround? Well, for

00:45one thing, KCR knows that his main rival in the Telangana elections which are due in just

00:50a few months is the Congress party and not the BJP and therefore he's focusing all his

00:55attention on them and can't be seen to be in any kind of opposition alliance in which

00:59the Congress is playing a role. The second factor is that his daughter K Kavita was almost

01:06arrested by the Enforcement Directorate earlier this year in the Delhi liquor policy case

01:10in which the AAP's Manish Yashodia is already in judicial custody. At one point, her arrest

01:15looked imminent, but suddenly the ED has gone quiet on that matter and no one is really

01:20saying anything anymore. This means that KCR could also be keeping his options open to

01:25see where the chips fall after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The opposition is up in

01:30arms, particularly in Maharashtra where he's trying to expand his base, accusing him of

01:34being the B team of the BJP because his entry into other states ends up dividing the anti-BJP

01:41vote and for the BJP, that's only good news.

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