Hyderabad: With Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao poised to take his fight against his Andhra Pradesh counterpart into the heart of rival camp soon, the politics in India’s two Telugu states is heating up.

The cold war between the two Telugu CMs has already cast a shadow on the show of strength by the anti-BJP parties in Kolkata.

While Andhra CM N. Chandrababu Naidu — the driving force behind the efforts to bring regional parties across India together — had already reached Kolkata on Friday, to attend the massive rally organised by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee, Telangana’s KCR was unlikely to attend the event despite receiving a personal invitation.

According to sources KCR has decided to stay away from the Kolkata rally as Chandrababu Naidu will be at centre stage.

While the Kolkata rally was being attended by all the anti-BJP forces, including the Congress, KCR was working for a third alternative without the BJP and the Congress.

During his daylong stay in Kolkata on Saturday Chandrababu Naidu will hold one to one meetings with many prominent political leaders and address the rally in the evening.

The political scene in Andhra Pradesh has dramatically changed since Telugu Rashtra Samiti (TRS) working president K. Taraka Rama Rao (KTR) met YSR Congress party president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and invited him to join the Federal Front proposed by the former’s father, KCR.

Jagan said he would take a final decision after meeting KCR in Andhra Pradesh soon.

KCR is calculating that his entry into Andhra Pradesh politics as an ally of Jaganmohan will weaken the Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP), analysts say.

KCR has vowed to campaign in Andhra, but the TDP is looking at the development from a totally different perspective.

Chandrababu Naidu has used the Jagan-KTR meeting to question the motive behind the unholy alliance. Pointing out that TRS and KCR had strongly opposed the special category status to Andhra Pradesh, Naidu asked how Jagan can join hands with anti-Andhra forces.

Naidu’s policy was a mirror image of the game plan of KCR during the recent state elections when he had questioned TDP’s alliance with the Congress on almost the same grounds.

“Jagan’s possible entry into the Federal Front of KCR has given a very powerful handle to us to target him on emotional grounds”, a senior TDP leader observed.

During an interaction with the party leaders Chandrababu Naidu said that the hand of Prime Minister Narendar Modi was visible behind the alliance of KCR and Jagan. “all three of them are the hawks ready to pounce on Andhra Pradesh”, he said cautioning the people to remain alert.

Naidu demanded to know whether Jaganmohan Reddy will ask the TRS leaders to support Andhra Pradesh on the issues of SCS and Polavaram irrigation project.

In another interesting fall out of the new bout both Chandrababu Naidu and Jaganmohan Reddy have cancelled their visits abroad. While Jagan was scheduled to visit London along with his family to meet his daughter, Chandrababu Naidu was to visit Davos to attend the World Economic Forum. Apparently the decision was necessitated by the increasing political temperatures ahead of the state assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections by the month of April.