Hyderabad: With just one more phase of polling to the Lok Sabha to go on Sunday, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was back in action on Monday to cobble together an alliance of regional parties as a viable alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.

Just a day after he returned home, KCR was back in Tamil Nadu for his much-awaited meeting with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president MK Stalin in Chennai. KCR who flew to Trichy last evening by a special flight did the rounds of prominent Hindu religious places and offered prayers at the famous Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple at Srirangam before flying to Chennai.

Stalin warmly received KCR and other TRS leaders accompanying him at his residence in Chennai.

According to sources, the discussion of the two regional satraps was focused on the possible outcome of the Lok Sabha elections and both agreed that there was no possibility of BJP returning to power or any other party securing a clear majority to form its government.

However, they differed on the approach to be taken on providing a strong and stable alternative coalition. While KCR continued to advocate building a non-BJP and non-Congress alliance of regional parties, Stalin stuck to his line that no alternative will be strong or stable without the involvement of the Congress.

Stalin has already publicly declared his support to Congress president Rahul Gandhi heading the next coalition government at the Centre.

The difference of opinion between KCR and Stalin on this issue was well known and it was in this background that Stalin was initially hesitant to meet KCR.

Sources say KCR put forward the idea of the four major regional parties from south backed by the Left coming together to occupy a strong bargaining position in the process of the formation of the next government. He said that apart from his own Telangana Rashtra Samiti, YSR Congress of Jaganmohan Reddy, Janata Del Secular of HD Deve Gowda and DMK could be part of this axis.

KCR has already met Kerala Chief Minister and senior CPM leader Pinarayi Vijayan and discussed the idea of a third front. Without committing to the proposal Vijayan had described his meeting with KCR as “very important”. KCR’s lobbying was being seen in the context of other regional satraps, specially Bahujan Samaj Party leader and Dalit icon Mayawati and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee also fancying their own chances to occupy the top position at the Centre.

After the sixth phase of polling on Sunday, many psephologists have forecast the alliance of Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh Yadav was likely to sweep Uttar Pradesh by bagging more than 50 seats. If this turns out to be true, the alliance will be third biggest group behind the BJP and the Congress. Similarly, Mamata with her possible 30-odd Lok Sabha seats was also likely to emerge a strong contender for the prime minister’s job resulting in intense jockeying.

KCR on the other hand was exploring the possibility of the top post once again going to a leader from South India and he has not ruled out himself from the race. “If not the top position, he will at least try for deputy prime ministership,” a TRS leader said.

KCR was also keen to keep his bête noire, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, out of any such alliance. But Naidu was drawing his own plans for a non-BJP alliance built around Congress. He has convened a meeting of like-minded leaders including Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Tejaswi Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal on May 21 in New Delhi. Though Mamata and Mayawati were also invited, they were likely to stay away from the meeting to keep their options open.