Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samiti President K. Chandrasekhar Rao kicked off his mission of bringing the regional parties together to form a non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), non-Congress Third Front with a visit to Kolkata.
KCR, who along with his team of party leaders and advisers flew by chartered aircraft from Hyderabad met the West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress President Mamata Banerjee and held a two-hour discussion with her on the current political situation.
The visit was significant as Mamata was the first key regional leader to positively respond to KCR’s proposal of floating a Third or a Federal Front and playing a key role at the national level. Soon after KCR had expressed the need for bringing a qualitative change in national politics and coming up with an alternative to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Congress led UPA, Mamata had spoken to him over phone. “We are with you”, she had told KCR.
Encouraged by her response KCR made Kolkata his first destination on in a nationwide mission during which he plans to visit all the major state capitals including Bengaluru, Bhuvaneshwar, Ranchi, Patna, Mumbai and Lucknow.
KCR who was accompanied by party general secretary K Keshav Rao, his adviser Rajeev Sharma and daughter and MP K Kavita was given a warm welcome at the Kolkata airport by Mamata’s cabinet colleagues. Later Mamata received him outside his office in the state secretariat.
Though the meeting has generated a lot of buzz in the political circles, observers believe that KCR may face a roadblock ahead as Mamata Banerjee was more inclined to be part of a Congress led front while KCR was envisaging a Front sans BJP or Congress.
The Congress was making its own efforts to bring the regional parties together to further strengthen the United Progressive Alliance.
After the meeting KCR told the media that the people of the country were looking forward to an alternative as the BJP and the Congress had failed in meeting the aspirations of the people. “Today a good beginning has been made towards the formation of a people’s Federal Front”, he said.
Asserting that the new Front will be based on the “agenda of development” KCR said that mere replacing Congress with BJP will not solve any problem. “There is a need for miracle in this country, something great needs to be done for that. This is a very good beginning in Kolkata. This country needs to change, to reinvent and reorient, for that we have held talks”, he said.
“Today’s meeting was the first step towards bringing a qualitative change in country’s politics”, he said.
When asked about the future tie up between the proposed Federal Front and Congress, KCR said, “Our front will be a Federal Front. The agenda we are gong to propose will be totally different from the present routine model. It will be a peoples agenda, it is not mere Cong, BJP or KCR model”.
We have discussed the need for the formation of Federal Front and the present political scenario in the country”, KCR said. “This will be a people’s Front not parties’ front”. “Our Front is very big and we will soon come out with a people’s agenda”, he added expressing confidence that many friends will come forward to join hands with them.
On the reported differences of opinion with Mamata Banerjee vis-a-vis Congress he said, “There is some understanding. You will come to know the full details in future because only two of us cant decide the whole thing. There are friends, people, like-minded leaders, we need to talk to all of them. We made a good beginning today and I am confident we will be able to carry it forward”.
Mamata Banerjee said, “sometimes people have to come together to work”.
