HYDERABAD/VIJAYAWADA: Amid criticism by TDP supremo and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu that YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is dancing to the tunes of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, TRS working president K T Rama Rao on Saturday said that Jagan would be part of the Federal Front being proposed by his father.
“Jagan is part of the Federal Front and we will work with other regional parties at the Centre,’’ KTR announced. The Federal Front was mooted by Chandrasekhar Rao as a non-Congress and non-BJP platform, envisaging a bigger role for regional parties at the national level.
Like Chandrababu Naidu, who held discussions with leaders of various national and regional parties, Chandrasekhar Rao too met West Bengal and Odisha CMs Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik as well as leaders of other South Indian regional parties to take forward the Federal Front idea.
Addressing roadshows and election rallies in Telangana, KTR said, “If TRS wins all the 16 Lok Sabha seats in this elections, the party will join hands with like-minded leaders like YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and Naveen Patnaik .’’ Interestingly, though KTR announced that Mamata Banerjee supported the Federal Front, she will campaign in Visakhapatnam on Sunday in support of the TDP.
‘Jagan will be part of Federal Front’
Similarly, Akhilesh Yadav is also expected to extend his support to the TDP and is likely to campaign for the ruling party in the State. KTR’s logic that regional parties like his own TRS, Jagan’s YSRC and others can play a key role in the formation of the government at the Centre, is based on the assumption that none of the two national parties -- the BJP and the Congress -- would not get the required mandate to form government on their own.
“The NDA will not get more than 150-160 seats while the Congress will not cross 100 seats. With 150 seats in our (TRS-YSRC-TMC and others) hands, we will decide who will be the next PM,’’ KT Rama Rao, TRS working president, said.
Jagan’s YSRC, though never openly made comments about joining any front, has been asking the people to give a clear mandate (25 out of 25 MP seats in the State) to take forward the fight for Special Category Status (SCS) to AP. Jagan, in the recent past, had even questioned as to what was wrong in taking the support of KCR for getting SCS to the AP.