Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Saturday kicked off party’s campaign for ensuing Assembly elections by daring the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to name a Dalit as its chief ministerial candidate.

Sounding the poll bugle at a public meeting at Mahabubnagar, he recalled that TRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao had promised before 2014 elections that a Dalit will be made the Chief Minister but when TRS won the elections, he himself became the Chief Minister.

“I want to ask KCR, will you fulfil this promise at least this time or will make your son as the Chief Minister?” said Shah.

The BJP chief slammed TRS government for what he called excesses on Dalits, tribals and farmers. He claimed that more than 4,500 farmers committed suicide in Telangana during last four years of TRS rule.

Shah said KCR imposed early elections on people though the simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assembly were scheduled for May 2019.

He alleged that TRS stopped celebrating Telangana Liberation Day on September 17 as it is afraid of its friendly party Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). He recalled that it was on this day that Hyderabad state had become part of India but TRS government is not celebrating the day to remember the martyrs because it is afraid of MIM and Owaisi.

Referring to Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s statement that the Congress will form the next government in Telangana, Shah said Rahul is daydreaming. He listed the states where Congress lost the elections since 2014.

The BJP leader said people of Telangana have not forgotten the treatment meted out to former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and former Chief Minister T. Anjaiah by the Congress.