Farmers Movement Archive

Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao’s non-Congress posturing stopping federal front?

HYDERABAD: Has TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s non-Congress axis become a major hindrance for his ambitious plans to play a key role in national politics? KCR appears to be in a piquant situation on the issue ever since he floated the idea of forming a federal front with non-Congress and non-BJP parties two-and-a-half years ago. For that matter, KCR has never tried to hide his interest in national politics and made his wish whenever he got an opportunity. Whether it was paddy procurement issue, farm laws or Dalit Bandhu scheme, KCR was often heard saying he would take the issue to the national stage. He even caught the national attention by announcing Rs 3 lakh ex gratia to each family of over 750 farmers who lost their lives during the protests against farm laws in the last one year. On Tuesday, KCR discussed about fighting unitedly against the BJP government at the Centre with his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin, especially on its attitude towards states. This is not the first time that the TRS president is meeting the DMK leaders. He had met former CM and DMK chief M Karunanidhi and Stalin two years ago and discussed about forming a front with non-BJP and non-Congress parties. But, the DMK had preferred to sail with the Congress. The regional party from Tamil Nadu enjoys a good equation with Congress and was even part of the UPA government at the Centre between 2004 and 2014. In 2019, KCR had met West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik by visiting the respective states. He also had discussions with Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and JMM’s Hemant Soren by inviting them to Hyderabad. “Except Naveen Patnaik, other parties like DMK, TMC and SP have always maintained good relations with the Congress. Major parties take decisions on alliances only during the elections depending upon the emerging situation. Parties like DMK have clear idea about their support to the Congress,” political analyst SK Zakeer said.

The Times of India

2021-12-17

Hyderabad