Hyderabad: Having returned to power in Telangana with a thumping majority, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has once again turned his attention to plans for a ‘federal front’, lining up meetings with Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik and other regional satraps beginning this Sunday.
A meeting scheduled with Prime Minister Narendra Modi along the way, however, may not sit well with prospective members of the proposed front.
KCR’s tour will begin with a visit to the famous Sharada Peetham in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizag, where the Telangana CM will also meet Swami Swarupanandendra.
KCR will then proceed to meet Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on December 23 and will stay the night at the official residence of the BJD leader. This would be KCR’s first meeting with Patnaik on the issue of forging a federal front for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
KCR’s next meeting would be with West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, who was one of the first opposition leaders he met when he proposed the idea of an ‘alternative front’.
The TRS chief would then meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25, a meeting which is likely to invite criticism from the Congress which has accused KCR of being the ‘B-team’ of the BJP.
Anticipating trouble in opposition ranks over the meeting, senior TRS leader Keshav Rao told News18, “Meeting PM Modi is just a courtesy call. That has nothing to do with federal front. However, with all the other leaders, the discussions will be about federal front and how to go about it.”
After a thumping victory in the state in recent snap elections, KCR had said that his focus would be forging a ‘federal front’ at the national level. KCR had also appointed his son KT Rama Rao as party’s working president to devote more time to national politics. This is the first time since the party’s establishment in 2001 that TRS has a working president. The move has also led to speculation that KTR may be the next to occupy the CM’s chair.
During his three-day stay in Delhi, KCR will also meet Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, along with Central Election Commissioner Sunil Arora.
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