Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his first election rally in poll-bound Telangana, on Tuesday said the Congress and the TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) are “family parties” and they are two faces of the same coin.

There was no democracy in both the parties. “They compete with each other in spreading untruths and half truths and therefore you don’t believe them in this election,” he said.

Family rule and vote bank politics were impediments for development and vote bank politics was a moth which ate the vitals of the economy, he said at the well attended meeting at Giriraj Government College ground in Nizamabad.

“Where there is family rule, there is no development. It is ridiculous that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are criticising the family rule of K. Chandrasekhar Rao while running the same show. Mr. Rao dashed the hopes and aspirations of the Telangana people in his four-and-a-half year governance. Both the Congress and the TRS are involved in a friendly contest. Mr. Rao is a friend of the Congress,” Mr. Modi said.

Mr. Rao ate the salt of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government as he was the Minister in it and enjoyed facilities. “Sonia acted as a remote control of the UPA regime and Mr. Rao knew it better.” Mr. Rao, in fact, got training under the tutelage of the Congress, he said.

‘Congress student caused much damage to State’

Drawing comparison between the two, Mr. Modi said Mr. Rao, as a student of the Congress, did so much damage to the State that would equal the damage caused by the Congress if it was voted to power. “Therefore, you have only one way for development; that is the BJP. The Congress ruled the country from Delhi to galli [street] for several years. When I questioned what had it done all those years, they started attacking me asking my caste and personal details,” he said.

Mr. Rao, with his “feeling of insecurity”, had not allowed the implementation of Ayushman Bharath. As a result, lakhs of poor families were getting affected in the State. In just two months of the introduction of the scheme, three lakh families got benefit availing medical treatment for cancer and major diseases up to Rs. 5 lakh, Mr. Modi claimed.

Pooh-poohing the yagas and yagnas of Mr. Rao, he said the former was whiling away the time by indulging in use of neembu-mirchi (lemon and chillis). “He left the public health to the air. Therefore, the poor were suffering. Conditions in hospitals were bad and the condition of medical college here the worst,” he said.

Mr. asked the people “if they like to vote for the Congress” which had “failed the State”. Wherever the Congress was defeated, it did not come back to power again. “I appeal to you to give the chance to the BJP once and vote for it on December 7,” he said.