TRS may skip May 21 Oppn meet

Hyderabad, May 10

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi will not be part of a planned meeting of Opposition parties on May 21 to chalk out a post-poll alliance, a key party leader indicated on Friday.

Karimnagar MP B Vinod Kumar, a confidant of TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, said the party couldn’t be part of any meeting with TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Naidu met Congress president Rahul Gandhi two days ago and more or less agreed to call a meeting of Opposition parties on May 21, sources had said.

Kumar said: “We can’t be part of any meeting with Chandrababu Naidu. That’s very clear”. The TRS position does not come as a surprise as Naidu and KCR, as the Telangana Chief Minister is referred to by many, don’t see eye-to-eye.

Taking on the TRS, the TDP headed by Naidu had fought last year’s Assembly elections in Telangana in alliance with the Congress.

Campaigning at the time saw KCR launching an all-out attack on Naidu, and war of words between the leaders of the two Telugu states.

Naidu is a key interlocutor of the opposition, including the Congress, trying to forge a united front against the BJP. Kumar described this role of Naidu’s as “self-proclaimed”. KCR has been pushing the idea of a non-Congress, non-BJP federal front of regional parties since last year.

Asked if the TDP is not going to be part of this front, Kumar said: “In Andhra Pradesh, he (Naidu) is not going to win Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. After May 23, his role will be minimal.” 

Kumar, who was deputy floor leader of TRS in Lok Sabha, indicated that KCR’s proposed meeting with DMK chief MK Stalin on May 13, as part of the latter’s outreach to Opposition parties, is still on.

“But they (DMK) have not informed us that we are not going to meet on May 13th. Within a day or two depending on his election campaigning...because he is moving around the whole State, so whether the time suits us...if possible we may meet a day earlier or a day after,” Kumar said. The DMK indicated earlier this week that Stalin may not meet KCR on May 13 as he was 'busy' with his campaign schedule for the May 19 by-polls to four constituencies Tamil Nadu.

On reports in a section of the media speculating about the TRS softening its stand vis-a-vis the Congress, Kumar declined comment on “presumptions and assumptions” which he said would continue till election results are declared. — PTI

Mamata, Naidu hold closed-door meeting

Kolkata: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu has held a closed-door discussion with his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee in Kharagpur on future plans of the ‘mahagathbandhan’. The meeting took place for over 15 minutes late Thursday evening, TMC sources said. On whether Banerjee would be attending the proposed meeting of the Opposition parties likely to be held on May 21, the TMC leader said the date was yet not decided. “It’s not decided that the meeting will be held on May 21... it seems it might be deferred by a couple of days and take place after May 23. Didi may be taking part in it,” he said. 

Cong hurting oppn unity, Rahul to blame if Modi wins: Kejriwal 

• Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday accused Rahul Gandhi of harming the SP-BSP alliance in UP, the Left in Kerala, the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the Aam Aadmi Party in the Capital
• He said the Congress chief will be responsible if Narendra Modi comes back to power. Kejriwal’s attack comes two days ahead of elections in Delhi, which is witnessing a three-cornered contest
• “It is appearing as if the Congress is fighting the polls against Opposition parties and not against the BJP. The Congress is acting as a spoilsport,” he said, adding AAP will back any anti-BJP party at the Centre