Hyderabad: It was yet another show of opposition unity in the national capital when four chief ministers, all regional titans, extended their support to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who has been protesting at the L-G’s office to seek an end to the IAS officers’ “strike”.
However, despite being in Delhi, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, gave the show of strength a miss.
KCR’s absence raised eyebrows among political circles because he was the first among opposition leaders to moot the idea of a federal front ahead of the 2019 elections and propose possible grouping of regional forces as an alternative at the Centre to bring qualitative change.
Earlier too, the Telangana chief minister had skipped the first big show of opposition unity when he decided to not attend the swearing-in ceremony of HD Kumaraswamy in Karnataka.
Telangana also did not participate when finance ministers of various states, with a common ideology on fiscal federalism, met in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to discuss the concerns and impact of Terms of Reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission.
Interestingly, KCR met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday to discuss various issues related to his state. The chief minister made a representation on 10 issues to which the Prime Minister “positively responded”.
The Telangana Congress has accused the TRS chief of working as an agent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy said, “KCR’s proposed federal front was aimed at benefitting BJP. KCR has been working as an agent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP. He is afraid of opening his mouth before Modi. He is only playing gimmicks to divert attention of people from his failures.”
KCR, a seasoned politician, is known for strategically planning every political move.
Professor K Nageshwar, a political analyst, said: “Clearly, KCR is not adopting a confrontational stand against the Modi government — be it the HD Kumaraswamy oath-taking ceremony or being part of states raising concern over the 15th Finance Commission. In Kejriwal’s case, all parties that extended support were non-BJP and non-Congress. Given his idea of a federal front, not extending support to this bloc only shows his hypocrisy.”
He added, “In Telangana, the BJP is not a force and the Congress is the main opposition to TRS. So there is some soft corner for the BJP. For obvious reasons, KCR does not want to be seen as part of any alliance with the Congress when the state is scheduled to go into elections next year.”
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