Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday said that it would take at least two to three months to forge his Federal Front at the national level ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as he will have to consult all regional parties to arrive at a consensus on who should be with included in the front and who should be left out.
He said that states should be empowered with more powers and funds and more devolution of funds, subjects such as health, education, urban and rural development etc should be transferred from the Centre to states immediately.
The CM also invited Stalin as chief guest for the “Rythu Bandu” cheque distribution programme of Rs 8,000 per acre sop to farmers on May 10.
Mr Rao said, “I came by to meet brother Mr Stalin. We were discussing Centre-state relations and the powers to be given to states. Across the nation there is a debate over the need to bring qualitative change in governance in India. Both of us had a telephonic conversation with (West Bengal Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee also. It will take minimum two to three months for consulations and arrive at a consensus."
He added, "We both felt that India should be a secular country. There is no second thought on that. We should respect one and all. We discussed about leveraging of Indian economy. Countries like
Japan could progress fast by leveraging their economy, which did not happen in India in the past 70 years."
When asked whether Centre is meting injustice to Southern states, Mr Rao said, "Where is the doubt about this? There is no doubt. We will certainly fight to our capacity to get justice to our people. There will be no compromise on this."
Mr Rao, who flew to Chennai from Begumpet airport in a special flight along with TRS parlimentary party leader K. Keshava Rao, MP B. Vinod Kumar, MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, Mission Bhagiratha chairman Vemula Prashanth Reddy and few other TRS leaders, first went to Karunanidhi's residence, where he stayed for a while. He later left for Mr Stalin's residence and had lunch with him.
