 "KCR roots for Bharat Ratna for Narasimha Rao")
Rich tributes were paid to PV, as he was well known, on his 93rd birth anniversary today and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has taken the lead in honouring the memory of a leader, hailed as the architect of economic reforms launched in the nineties.
Besides Chandrasekhar Rao, Governor E S L Narasimhan, a host of Ministers, MPs, MLAs and leaders of various parties offered floral tributes to the "son of the soil" at PV Gnana Bhoomi at a "state function" organised for the first time.
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The Chief Minister, who had his origins in the Congress during the days of late Indira Gandhi and had joined TDP later, said his Cabinet would soon pass a resolution requesting the Centre to confer Bharat Ratna on the late politician, considered the architect of the wide-ranging economic reforms launched in 1991.
But having spearheaded the creation of Telangana state, KCR, as he is popularly known, is said to be looking for symbols for the new state and resurrecting the memory of PV, the only Telugu prime minister of India, suits his plans.
After PV's term in office as Prime Minister, the Congress party came into the hands of Sonia Gandhi and since then PV was sidelined in its affairs. In his death, he was denied the honour of being cremated in Delhi nor is there any memorial for him in the capital.
Narasimha Rao was also incidentally the first Chief Minister of unified Andhra Pradesh in the early 70s from the Telangana region having hailed from Karimnagar in the region.
Chandrasekhar Rao, announced on the occasion that a memorial building, that would house the memorabilia of the late Prime Minister, would be constructed in Hyderabad.
"A new district that will be carved out soon will be named after P V Narasimha Rao. We will also name a university in Telangana after him," Chandrasekhar Rao said.
He requested the Centre to build a befitting memorial to the former Congress stalwart in New Delhi.