india

Updated: Apr 27, 2019 18:35 IST

Beginning Monday, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will start his tour to different states to meet leaders of various regional parties as part of reviving his idea of floating a federal front as an alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party at the national level.

According to a party functionary familiar with the development, KCR, as the TRS supremo is popularly called, will leave for Kerala on Monday (April 29) to hold talks with the Left Front leaders, including Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, to discuss the possibility of the formation of a non-Congress and non-BJP coalition government at the Centre.

KCR has chosen the Left parties for negotiations first apparently to counter the allegations of the Congress party leaders that the federal front was a B-team of the BJP and he had floated the idea only to split the allies of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.

“After Kerala, he would go to other states, including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi one after the other to meet various regional party leaders to give a concrete shape to the federal front,” the party leader said.

Before winning the Telangana assembly elections in December, the TRS chief had a preliminary round of discussions with Janata Dal (S) chief Deve Gowda and his son H D Kumaraswamy, besides Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren.

Soon after the elections, he went to Odisha and West Bengal to hold discussions with Biju Janata Dal leader Naveen Patnaik and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

The Telangana chief minister, who has been constantly monitoring the trends of the ongoing general elections across the country and getting intelligence reports from various states, is understood to have come to the conclusion that neither the BJP-led NDA nor the Congress-led UPA will get enough numbers to form the government at the Centre.

“According to the inputs obtained by KCR, neither NDA nor UPA would be able to cross the 200 mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha. On the other hand, the non-BJP and non-Congress parties would be able to get around 140-150 seats. If they can form a federal front, there is a possibility of other regional parties from either side joining the front so that it can stake claim to form the government. There is a possibility of even the Left parties joining us,” the TRS leader said.

On Saturday, TRS working committee president and KCR’s son K T Rama Rao asserted that his party would win 16 out 17 MP seats in Telangana, the remaining seat going to its friendly party – Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). “We are going to be the crucial force at the Centre,” he told party functionaries at Telangana Bhavan on the 18th formation day of the party.

The TRS leadership expects that the YSR Congress party in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh will be able to win 18-19 seats. “With 34-35 MP seats, the Telugu states can emerge as a major regional force,” the TRS leader said.

The party hopes that leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and Arvind Kejriwal, who are not ready to accept the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, would be willing to be part of the federal front. “If we can convince pro-Congress parties like JD (S), DMK and JMM to join us, it will be a formidable force,” he said.

However, KCR is said to be of the view that under any circumstances, the federal front should not approach the BJP for support from outside. “If such a situation arises, it would be better to ask the support of the Congress,” the TRS leader said.

Osmania University professor and political analyst K Nageshwar said the formation of a federal front government at the Centre cannot be ruled out, but the chances are bleak. “There is a chance for the federal front, only if the Congress or BJP coalitions prefer to opt out of the race due to inadequate numbers. Even in such a case, it has to take the support of the Congress or BJP from outside,” he said.