‘TRS chief is preparing the ground to join the National Democratic Alliance and enjoy power at the Centre and state too’.
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) has decided to stay away from campaigning for other Opposition parties out of the state, though he had earlier announced that he would support other players in his proposed federal front at the Centre. Sources close to him say that he is open to joining the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in case it needs the numbers after 23 May.
KCR has been invited by JDS leaders H.D. Deve Gowda and his son Chief Minister Kumaraswamy to campaign in Karnataka, DMK leader M.K. Stalin in Tamil Nadu and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bengal, as he had earlier promised to support them in thes elections.
KCR’s rival and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been visiting other states—Karnataka and Tamil Nadu—since this week and is likely to visit many other places in the country in the upcoming month. Naidu would be addressing meetings in Delhi in support of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the areas where Telugu speaking people live. However, KCR has no such plans though he was in touch with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
A major reason for KCR’s unwillingness to move out of Telangana, according to sources close to him, is his preoccupation with the elections to local bodies—zilla parishads and mandal (block) parishads—from 22 April to 14 May.
“Our leader is busy with preparations for the local bodies’ elections which our TRS would sweep,” senior TRS leader and MP Gutta Sukhender Reddy told this newspaper.
Though this is true, some leaders in TRS admit that KCR can afford to spend a couple of days’ time for his friends in the Opposition camp like Kumaraswamy, Stalin, Mamata Banerjee and BJD’s Naveen Patnaik whom he had met six months ago. These TRS leaders who preferred not to be quoted recalled how KCR had promised Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav to canvass for him in Uttar Pradesh.
The TRS leaders sense some change in KCR ‘s plan in pushing his federal front idea currently. The Chief Minister has not given up on his national ambitions as he spoke about the challenges facing India at several elections rallies before the elections.
“If god permits, you (people of Telangana) can play a role in changing the destiny of the country,” KCR told the audience at his public meetings.
The prospects of Congress and other regional parties are too dim to pose a challenge to the BJP which would be the single largest party after the results. In such a situation, KCR is of the view that it would be better to join hands with the BJP-led NDA, instead of sailing with the Opposition camp. Campaigning for the Opposition parties might pose a moral hurdle for him to join the NDA later.
At the same time, KCR is understood to have remarked that he was not eager to join a Modi-led NDA government at any cost. TRS would do so, if only the BJP falls short of the magic figure and seeks its help; otherwise, KCR would be too happy to stay confined to Telangana as his government would be in power for the next five years, the sources explained.
KCR’s silence on extending support to other Opposition partners of his federal front was opportunistic, said former MP and Congress campaigner Vijaya Shanti. The actress-turned-politician, who was with KCR till 2014 on Friday, said that the TRS chief was preparing the ground to join the NDA and enjoy power at the Centre and state too. “This is nothing but ditching his friends in regional parties.”
She also expressed doubts over the tearing hurry with which KCR was going for the local bodies’ elections even before the results of the Lok Sabha were announced on 23 May.
Telangana BJP unit president K. Laxman said that his party doesn’t need the support of KCR at the Centre. “When Modiji is coming to power on 300 plus seats, where is the question of taking the help of KCR?”Laxman said.
He was confident of BJP winning Secunderabad, Mahabubnagar and Nizamabad Lok Sabha seats.