Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Thursday declared Urdu as the state’s second official language saying that the demand to make Urdu a second language has been there for a long time, News18 has reported.

In move that is being termed as ‘appeasement politics’ by the opposition, the Chief Minister has asked all government offices, including his own, to receive all official communications and petitions in Urdu as well.

“Urdu as a second language has been a demand for a long time,” Rao said.

“I am declaring today, not considering districts as a unit but the state as a unit, in the entire Telangana State, Urdu will be considered. Urdu will be practised as the second official language,” he added.

Responding to the move, the Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Krishna Sagar said the Chief Minister was indulging in vote bank politics.

“We strongly condemn this Muslim appeasement move by the Chief Minister. First, he announced a special IT corridor for Muslims, which was bizarre and now this impractical move of making Urdu the second official language. People prefer English or Hindi, as it does value addition and help them with jobs. We reject this move as it will lead to splurging of public money and nothing else,” he told News18.

In September, the Telangana government had decided to make Telugu a compulsory subject in both public and private institutions in the state from Class I to XII.