Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao met his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday, cautiously focusing on issues rather than individuals, apart from the need for a combined resistance against the BJP.
The meeting took place weeks after Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s attempts to forge a new political front to fight the saffron party floundered because of a strident anti-Congress tenor.
Rao, who met Uddhav as well as NCP boss Sharad Pawar, insisted that there was an agreement on fighting the BJP’s regressive politics but skirted questions on the role of the Congress.
He said: “There is no need for speculation. This is just a beginning. We will meet again to discuss the future course. We all agree that the existing situation must change. The way the country is being run has to change.”
Rao said: “We will talk to other parties. We want to fight zulm, we want to fight against illicit politics, we want to fight for democracy. The country’s atmosphere should not be vitiated like this. Central agencies are being misused. We need a strong country. What should have happened in the 75th year of Independence is not happening. Very soon, you will see a positive outcome of these meetings.”
Uddhav Thackeray. File photo
The Shiv Sena chief made it clear that their focus was on issues and the need for constructive politics to build a strong nation. “Prime Ministers and chief ministers will come and go. The country’s future is important. The low-grade politics of vendetta and maligning opponents, which the BJP is doing, is unacceptable. There should be no politics on the country’s future,” Uddhav said.
Sources said the rampant misuse of central agencies and attack on federalism dominated the discussion. The need for a credible political alternative also figured in the talks. Rao invited Uddhav to Hyderabad but the venue and time of the next meeting has not been finalised.
While chief ministers M.K. Stalin and Mamata are bound to play a critical role in these efforts, their parties have decided to wait for the outcome of the ongoing Assembly elections on March 10 after which the Opposition camp may significantly expand.
Pawar appeared more concerned about misgivings over the meeting with Rao, who is locked in a straight battle with the Congress in Telangana, emphatically saying that the theme of discussion was development and not politics.
“It was a pleasure meeting with K Chandrashekhar Rao, CM Telangana at my Mumbai residence today. We discussed various issues of development and cooperation between Telangana and Maharashtra,” Pawar tweeted.
The Congress is a direct threat to Rao’s dominance in Telangana. The relations between the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Congress turned extremely bitter when Rao charted his own separate course after Sonia Gandhi played a key role in the creation of the new state. The two parties had an understanding that the TRS would merge with the Congress.
Rao not only turned hostile to the Congress leadership but inched closer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His party, much like Naveen Patnaik’s BJD and Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress, supported the Modi government at critical junctures in Parliament.
However, the situation has changed now and Rao has adopted a belligerent attitude towards the BJP. Rao has not only viciously criticised the Prime Minister in recent days but he was the first leader to attack Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for insulting Sonia.
It will not be easy for him to realign with the Congress and hence he is moving cautiously without defining the contours of the proposed coalition. The stress is on a collective resistance without any anti-Congress rhetoric, which might have facilitated his dealings with the NCP and Shiv Sena.
The Congress has not reacted to the meetings so far.
