KCR on 2-day Maha tour from June 26; to visit Pandharpur and Tuljapur temple towns

Aurangabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will visit Pandharpur and Tuljapur temple towns during his two-day visit to Maharashtra starting from Monday, a functionary of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) said.

The BRS has been trying to make inroads into Maharashtra ahead of the state Assembly polls due next year.

Rao, popularly known as ‘KCR’, will arrive at Omerga in Osmanabad district on Monday and will then leave for Solapur.

On Tuesday, he will visit the Lord Vitthal temple in Pandharpur town of Solapur and offer prayers to the deity, the BRS functionary said.

The CM will also attend a locally arranged programme in Sarkoli village of Solapur.

Rao will later depart for Tuljapur in Osmanabad, where he will visit the famous Tulja Bhavani temple on Tuesday afternoon, he said.

On June 15, BRS president Rao inaugurated his party’s first office in Maharashtra at Nagpur as part of his ambitious plan to increase the organisation’s footprint outside his home state.

He had expressed concern over farmer suicides in Maharashtra and pitched for his “Telangana model” of development in the state.

Rao said 24-hour power and water supply in Telangana had reduced farmer suicides considerably there.

In December last year, the KCR-led party changed its name from Telangana Rashtra Samithi to Bharat Rashtra Samithi to underline its intention of becoming a pan-India party.

Last month, Rao announced a month-long programme to expand the BRS party’s network in over 45,000 villages in urban civic bodies in Maharashtra.

On May 22, the BRS began its drive to form party committees in the state as part of its exercise to go beyond the confines of its traditional stronghold Telangana.

KCR recently held rallies in parts of Maharashtra, mostly in Nanded, where he slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre and the one in Maharashtra led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for neglecting farmers and the downtrodden.