Anti-BJP Federal Front minus Congress on cards as KCR meets Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata today

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on Monday will meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata to garner her support for the proposed anti-BJP Federal Front minus Congress. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), who met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday, is scheduled to meet several Opposition leaders, over the next few days. His party has even hired a special chartered plane for a month to ease KCR’s travel across the country. From Kolkata, KCR’s next stop will be Delhi where will meet Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav. Both Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, who used to be sworn enemies of each other, have formed a pre-poll alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BSP-SP alliance excluded Congress which makes both the leaders crucial for KCR’s mission to bring forth the anti-BJP, Congress Federal Front.

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“I can say certainly that there is a dire need for unification of regional parties in the country. We strongly believe that there has to be an alternative to Congress and BJP" the TRS chief had told reporters after meeting Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar.

Early this year, the Telangana CM had met a bunch of Opposition leaders, including DMK chief MK Stalin, former prime minister and JD(S) leader HD Deve Gowda to seek their support in stitching a Federal Front minus BJP and Congress to "bring about a qualitative change" in the national politics.

He had alleged that both the Congress and the BJP have failed the country as they could not meet people’s expectations even after 70 years of Independence.

At that time, Mamata Banerjee had expressed her reservations about keeping the Congress out of the alliance. At the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, most of the regional leaders had shown a glimpse of unity by sharing the state with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

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However, things changed after DMK president MK Stalin’s recent proposal to project Rahul Gandhi as the Opposition’s prime ministerial face. The proposal irked several Opposition leaders, including Mayawati, Akhilesh and Mamata Banerjee, and they all rejected the idea, saying it was too early to decide that.