K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR,) the Chief Minister (CM) of Telangana, is all set to take the national politics by storm with his seven day campaign to take over as the ‘third front,’ ahead of Lok Sabha elections, 2019.
KCR, in his private aircraft, which he rented for his ‘third front’ campaign, flew to Odisha, on Sunday and met Naveen Patnaik, the CM of Odisha, to discuss his idea. Later, on Monday, KCR had a meeting with Mamata Banerjee, the CM of West Bengal, for the same.
After a successful meeting with Mamata Banerjee, KCR said, “A political dialogue has started following election results in five states. Yesterday, I had a meeting with the Odisha chief minister and today I met Didi (as Banerjee is popularly known). Dialogues are on. We are trying to settle issues of mutual interest as well as national policies.”
Moving ahead with his campaign tour, KCR landed in Delhi, today and is going to meet Mayawati Das, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader and Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party (SP) President.
KCR is also expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After becoming the CM of Telangana, this will be KCR’s first meeting with Narendra Modi.
KCR’s spokesperson said, “Since he is visiting the national capital for the first time after the assembly elections, he will make a courtesy call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi (too). At the same time, he will also submit representations to the Prime Minister on various pending issues concerning Telangana.”
The Congress party criticised KCR’s third front idea and said, the mission is nothing but a way to support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) indirectly.
Rajeev Gowda, a Congress party leader said, “KCR’s attempts to rope in regional parties and state chief ministers to be part of the ‘Federal Front’ will only help the BJP.” He further alleged KCR of helping the BJP and said, “If you (Rao) are going around and trying to create a third alternative then you are dividing the opposition vote and paving the way for ‘Modi Sarkar’ to continue its damage to India’s democratic, secular, and socio-cultural fabric.”
In addition, Mr. Gowda said, the regional parties with whom KCR wants to form an alliance won’t accept his third front idea and he will be alone with his party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS,) as the third front.
N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, also criticised KCR’s third front idea and said, the formation of the third party will divide the parties and help the BJP to rule again.
The two major parties, the Congress party and the BJP, after contesting the recent Legislative Assembly elections held in five states, will contest the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for 2019.
