It looks like Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has lost a big opportunity by not attending the swearing-in ceremony of Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy as the new chief minister of Karnataka at Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Almost all the heads of regional parties with whom KCR had talked to discuss the proposal to float a federal front attended the swearing-in ceremony, but KCR himself skipped the event.
On the other hand, his Andhra Pradesh counterpart and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu not only attended the function but also was the centre of attraction for the regional parties.
Reports from Bengaluru revealed that Naidu had virtually hijacked KCR’s federal front plan.
He held discussions with all the regional party heads to discuss the need to form an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party front, since the defeat of the BJP in 2019 is very much essential for the survival of the states.
He explained how the Centre was trying to usurp powers of the state and curbing their finances through 15th finance commission and how the BJP had cheated Andhra Pradesh.
West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee asked Naidu to take the initiative to form the federal front and bring all the like-minded parties together.
Interestingly, Naidu even had with the Left parties’ heads who seem to have congratulated him for coming out of the NDA and appreciated his fight with the Centre.
May be the regional parties, who were not taking kindly to the anti-Congress stand of KCR, have found a like-minded leader in Naidu, who did not hesitate to shake hands with Rahul Gandhi!
