KCR meets Akhilesh, ponders ways to check BJP

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Friday met former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav in New Delhi, where the two, along with SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, discussed the current state of national politics.

Chandrashekar Rao has been in the national capital for the past five days where he has been, according to his office, holding review meetings on various subjects with top bureaucrats from the state, including Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, who accompanied him to New Delhi.

On Friday, Akhilesh Yadav, and Ram Gopal Yadav called on Chandrashekar Rao at the latter’s residence in Delhi and the trio spent a few hours discussing issues related to the state of affairs in the country, and current political situation. Though no official details of the meeting were released by the Chief Minister’s Office, it is learnt that the three leaders discussed ways and means, and possibilities on putting a check on an increasingly belligerent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and how the BJP-led Central government was ‘wielding’ the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax department to intimidate political parties and those opposed to the BJP government.

It is learnt that the leaders also discussed on how to hold the BJP government accountable on its omissions and commissions in the ongoing Parliament session. They also discussed the upcoming Vice Presidential elections and the Opposition strategy.

The meeting on Friday once again gave hope to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) that the Chief Minister has not dropped his plans for going national, though there continues to be a lot of uncertainty over the proposed launch of a national party by Chandrashekar Rao. The Telangana Chief Minister was also scheduled to meet with Tejaswi Yadav, the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader from Bihar, but that meeting did not materialise.