Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao called on Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday night at the latter's residence in Thiruvananthapuram.The two leaders had a closed door meeting for two hours on the day of the fifth phase of polling. However, they refused to comment on the nature of their meeting.
A statement from Pinarayi’s office said KCR would be in the state till Wednesday. “He will be staying at Kovalam and on Wednesday, after visiting Kanyakumari, he will return to Hyderabad. He is accompanied by his family members," a statement from Pinarayi Vijayan’s office said. KCR is visiting with his wife Sobha and two grandchildren.
But speculation is rife that KCR, who heads the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), arrived to see if a non-Congress, non-BJP government can be formed in Delhi after the Lok Sabha elections. This was KCR's first meeting with any leader of a non-BJP and non-Congress party since the Lok Sabha elections began on April 11.
He has already spoken to West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
The Telangana CM is also expected to call on DMK chief MK Stalin on May 13. "Both the leaders (Rao and Stalin) are likely to discuss the current political scenario in the context of ongoing parliamentary elections," KCR’s office had said.
The move by KCR assumes significance as he was the one who had mooted the idea of a 'Federal Front' in March last year and initiated efforts to provide an alternative to both the BJP and Congress. He had subsequently met leaders of the Trinamool Congress, Biju Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal(S) and the DMK. He also invited YSR Congress Party to join the proposed front.
The efforts have been initiated by KCR amid projections that the existing BJP-led NDA may find it difficult to muster the majority figure to form the next government.
With IANS inputs