Telangana CM KCR dines with 'brother' Stalin, calls Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu a 'friend', what's cooking?

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), on Sunday, April 29, met DMK president M Karunanidhi at his residence and dined with MK Stalin while the two spoke to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee over the phone. He also met Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi.

 

The meeting was another step in the direction of forming a non-Congress and non-BJP front ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“Today, I came to meet my brother Stalin. We have discussed many things. We have been sharing ideas with Mamata Banerjee. It will take minimum three months to reach a consensus to decide about our next step,” Rao said.

But what surprised several was the fact that KCR also said that he wants to meet Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. "We will also meet Chandrababu Naidu. We are good friends. The parties who are going to join us and who will leave us is a decision that will be taken in the future," Rao further said.

 

KCR and Naidu were once good friends who started their political careers together in the youth Congress in the 1970s. Both Naidu and KCR joined the TDP and won 1985 Assembly polls. When Naidu revolted against his father-in-law and the then chief minister of AP NTR in 1995, KCR had sided with Naidu. But friction between the two started after 1999 assembly elections. Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party won and he retained the Chief Ministerial position. While KCR was expecting a more important portfolio, he was given post of Assembly Deputy Speaker. He quit TDP in 2000 and form Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to fight for the creation of a new state. And his agitation culminated in the formation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014.

And now KCR calls Naidu a 'friend' again, but only to garner support for his third front and to eventually satiate his dream of becoming the Prime Minister of India.

In fact, KCR has gone against his initial non-Congress stance by saying that he has not ruled out Congress from being a part of the federal front completely. This comes even after Congress labelled the KCR's effort to seek Mamata Banerjee’s support as an attempt to create differences among regional parties.