Chandrababu Naidu continues efforts to consolidate Opposition, meets Left's Sitaram Yechuri

In an apparent bid to consolidate the Opposition ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections results, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury to discuss post-poll strategy. The Andhra Pradesh chief minister's meeting with Yechury has come in addition to a flurry of meeting with Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati.

On Saturday, The Telugu Desam Party chief met leaders of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Lucknow, continuing his efforts to put together a coalition to form the anti-BJP government at the Centre.

He had reached the Uttar Pradesh capital in the evening after meetings in New Delhi with Congress president Rahul Gandhi, CPI leaders G Sudhakar Reddy and D Raja, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav.

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister did not speak to the media after any of his meetings. Sources, however, said Naidu and Gandhi discussed the possibility of forming a joint alliance of all opposition parties.

He told Gandhi to have a strategy ready, in case the NDA falls short of a majority and still stakes claim to form the government, the sources said. Naidu told all the leaders that “we all should come together and put our act together” to form the next government by keeping the BJP out, a source said.

Later, Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and other Congress leaders met at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s residence to evolve their party’s strategy.

“The campaigning of this Lok Sabha Election 2019 has ended and as we await the last phase of polling, Andhra Pradesh CM Shri N Chandrababu Naidu paid me a visit to discuss the ongoing and future political scenario of our country,” Pawar said in a tweet after the meeting at his residence.

(With inputs from PTI)