Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's decision to confront the central government over GST rates continues to rile the opposition parties that have accused him of deliberately misleading the people of the state.
While BJP said that KCR's stand was only to malign the saffron party, TDP went a step ahead and charged him with not using the opportunity to discuss the merits and demerits of GST in the Legislative Assembly only to pass a resolution supporting it in a hurry.
Describing his threat as “childish”, three major opposition parties saw ulterior motives in Rao’s sudden outburst at the Centre.
Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir said the CM’s decision to move court against GST was another example for his political opportunism.
"Just three days ago, KCR accused the Congress of moving courts and creating hurdles to state’s development. But, now he is talking of taking Centre to court on GST issue. Probably, he is doing this to safeguard the interests of the contractors of irrigation projects," he alleged.
TDP leader A Revanth Reddy accused KCR of adopting double standards on GST.
"When Centre proposed GST, KCR who hurriedly convened the Assembly session and ratified the GST bill without giving any scope to opposition parties to discuss its pros and cons. Now, he is speaking in a different voice," Reddy said.
Meanwhile, state BJP president K Laxman pointed out that the chief minister's announcement of a legal battle to take GST down was weird because there are ample opportunities to discuss any issue at the GST Council meetings.
"The GST on cement, steel and other materials needed for construction purposes have already been reduced by 10%. It is not fair to say that GST is a burden on government projects.And if this is true, then the government must put forward the `actual' financial details of various projects post-GST before people," he added.
