Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday said that he was open to working with any political party that was against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
"We welcome not only the TRS but any party which is against the BJP. We are welcoming all such parties to be part of our grand alliance. I am meeting everybody. We will chalk out a plan after discussing with all leaders." Naidu was quoted as saying.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief was speaking to reporters in New Delhi after he met with officials of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Naidu has planned meetings with several opposition leaders during his two-day visit to the national capital. He met Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury and Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday evening.
On Saturday, he is expected to meet Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Delhi and later Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati in Lucknow. The TDP has already declared its support to Congress and its President N. Chandrababu Naidu is even ready to play the anchor for a non-BJP alliance led by the Congress.
However, KCR, who is trying to bring regional parties together under his proposed Federal Front, is likely to take a decision about talks only after all the results were declared. Both he, and YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, seem to be adopting a wait-and-watch strategy. Both TRS and YSRCP are likely to emerge kingmakers in the event of the Lok Sabha elections throwing a fractured verdict.
Just last week, TRS spokesman Abid Rasool Khan had said, "We are confident that we will get the numbers to form the government but if we are short of numbers and Congress wants to extend outside support, we will consider."
Meanwhile, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has invited political heavyweights for a meeting on May 23 in Delhi.
IANS inputs