Telangana Rashtra Samithi

Mamata Banerjee

Nitish Kumar

Samajwadi Party

Asaduddin Owaisi

Sachin Pilot, Ashok Gehlot turf war cost Congress a landslide win Voters and party workers stayed confused; big battle today when the two stake claim to the hot seat

One thing is certain after’s (TRS) massive victory in the Telangana elections.The idea of a joint front to take on BJP in 2019 no longer appears feasible without K Chandrasekhar Rao, the caretaker chief minister of Telangana who is poised to lead India’s youngest state for the second time. If KCR has its way, such a front will have no space for Congress. The TRS president said as much on Tuesday.He is gearing up to announce a new “party” — a consortium of like-minded non-BJP, non Congress parties — to work for a “BJP and Congress-mukt Bharat”. “For me, bringing some parties together is not a big task.But such experiments have failed in the past. My objective is to change the Indian polity,” KCR declared.His daughter and Nizamabad MP K Kavitha agreed. “My father is already in touch with many leaders at the national level. A call on playing a national role will be taken at an appropriate time.”Soon after victory trends started coming in by Tuesday noon, three chief ministers —of West Bengal,of Bihar and HD Kumaraswamy of Karnataka — extended telephonic greetings to KCR. From Andhra Pradesh, the call came from YSR Congress president YS Jaganmohan Reddy.He conveyed to them his desire to meet them in Delhi or in their respective states. Rao has been also in touch withchief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati. Notably, both Mamata and Kumaraswamy are a part of the Congress-led grand alliance of which KCR’s bete noire Chandrababu Naidu is the unofficial convener.A canny strategist, KCR started the exercise of the national platform way back in April by meeting many leaders, including DMK’s Stalin, Mamata, Kumaraswamy and HD Deve Gowda among others. On the eve of counting, he had a luncheon meeting with his political ally,, the chief of AIMIM.KCR, sources said, is in the middle of an exercise to come up with a new economic and agriculture policy for the country. However, political analysts believe that the “idealistic goal” of a change in the political system is a long-term mission.“KCR wisely dissolved the Telangana assembly early because he sensed that Congress would gain strength after the state polls. But, it is not easy to realise his goals at the national level. I see only Mayawati and Akhilesh joining him. Even Shiv Sena may not side with him,” said political analyst Thunga Lakshminarayana.Hyderabad Central University retired political science head Professor T Haragopal added, “There have been discussions and efforts for an alternative politics. But it is a long-time battle.”