Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao wanted to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance but was firmly rebuffed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday in a bombshell comment while campaigning for Assembly elections in the state later this year.

“I refused him entry into NDA… I refused. I said, ‘we won’t cheat people of Telangana,” the Prime Minister declared in dramatic fashion, “After that his mind was rattled.”