Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s intention to float a Federal Front at the national level is being seen in some political circles as an attempt by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief to pursue an anti-Congress agenda to benefit the BJP at the Centre in the 2019 elections.
While Mr Rao has been claiming that his proposed front would remain equidistant from both the major national parties, the BJP and the Congress, the signals emerging from his tours to other states indicate that he wants to maintain a distance only from the Congress.
His recent sudden appearance in Karnataka to meet Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal(S) and appeal to Telugu voters to vote for the JD(S) and dethrone the Congress suggests to some observers that Mr Rao may want the BJP to come to power in Karnataka with the support of the JD(S) as the Janata Dal parties in Karnataka and Bihar are known to be close allies of the BJP. In Bihar, the BJP is part of the JD(U) government.
While all this is speculation, it is a fact that Mr Rao feels more threatened by the Congress than the BJP in his own state in the 2019 general election.
The BJP after all has no base in TS and Mr Rao wants to dominate state politics and cares little if the BJP benefits from his third front initiative in other states.
The Congress seems to be gaining ground in TS judging by the good response to its ongoing Bus Yatra.
The TRS would thus like to check any attempt by the Congress to secure power again both at the Centre and in the state, and Mr Rao could thus be taking a calculated risk by batting for the BJP.
