A day after the idea of a ‘Federal Front’ gathered steam with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao visiting his Kerala counterpart in Thiruvananthapuram, Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said the meeting turned out to be ‘extremely significant’.
"We discussed about the national political scenario. KCR’s assessment is that both the fronts will not come close to the majority mark,” Vijayan said, adding that regional parties will play a huge role this time. However, no discussions related to their prime ministerial candidate were held, he said.
The TRS chief has been proposing a non-BJP, non-Congress federal front at the Centre. As part of his plan, Rao has embarked on a tour of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known in the state, had also placed a call to Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, but the Chief Minister's office said it was a courtesy call."
Vijayan said that since every state is facing problems, there should be a new government at the Centre which is rooted in values of secularism and is based on the federal system.
The CM also said that once the BJP is plundered to its defeat, the state government will lend support to anyone who advocates for development in Kerala.
However, it would not be all smooth sailing for KCR as DMK on Tuesday indicated that its party chief MK Stalin may not meet him on May 13 as planned earlier.
Sources close to the DMK President only said Stalin was 'busy' with his campaign schedule for the May 19 by-polls to four constituencies in the state and declined to divulge more details. Earlier, a statement from the Telangana Chief Minister's Office (CMO) had said that Rao would meet the DMK chief at his residence in Chennai on May 13.
Rao, who had floated the idea of a third front some time ago, had met Stalin in April last as part of his outreach to regional parties, with the DMK leader hosting lunch for the visiting TRS supremo and his party colleagues.
Last year, KCR had done the round of states in the north and the east. He had met Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Odisha's Naveen Patnaik, but was stood up by Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav when he reached Delhi to meet them.
In an interview to News18 Network editor-in-chief Rahul Joshi earlier, Mamata Banerjee, too, had predicted that neither the NDA nor the UPA coalitions would come to power next month and that India may see a "new combination" government at the Centre. When asked if she was in touch with Naidu and KCR for a federal front, she replied "absolutely". "Yes, we are together. I have good relations with everyone," she said.
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