Taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of surgical strikes, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao Friday said that eleven surgical strikes were carried out during the UPA – 1 regime when he was the Union minister. KCR, who was Minister for Labour and Employment in Manmohan Singh's cabinet in 2004-06, revealed this at an election rally in Miryalguda where he targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for creating a hype over surgical strikes to garner votes.

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 “When I was a minister in the Centre, eleven surgical strikes were carried out. This was not revealed to anybody. Does anybody know? We carry out such strikes in the interest of our security”, he said at the TRS election rally in Miryalagua in Nalgonda district of Telangana. He also mocked at Modi over his 'chowkidar' (watchman) slogan, saying Chaiwala has gone and Chowkidar has come.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief said that while Modi claimed that 300 people died in the Balakot attack, JeM leader Masood Azhar said not even an ant was killed. "Do you seek votes by creating hype on such issues, leaving real issues like poverty, problems of farmers and economy aside," Rao asked

Reacting to charges leveled by Modi against his government at an election rally in Mahabubnagar, Rao accused the prime minister of speaking lies and dared him for an open debate on the Centre's Ayushman Bharat and the state's 'Aarogyasri' Health Scheme to ascertain which was better.  Rao, who has been proposing a non-BJP, non-Congress federal front at the Centre, appealed to the people to vote for the TRS candidates in the coming elections, saying the party MPs would fight for the rights of the state.

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