HYDERABAD: Posters hailing Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao as 'desh ka neta' and greeting political strategist Prashant Kishor installed at different places in Uttar Pradesh have caught the attention of many, making them wonder why billboards about KCR have come up in the northern state.
Rao is popularly known as KCR.
However, a TRS functionary seems to have taken upon himself to spread the popularity of his leader in the Hindi heartland, even as Rao has been going all guns blazing against the BJP and is trying to cobble up a bloc minus the saffron party.
Incidentally, speculations have been rife about some tie-up between Kishor and the TRS, ahead of the Assembly elections slated next year, although no formal announcement has been made so far.
Curiously, while Kishor is being extended birthday wishes, one of the posters is seen carrying pictures of almost all non-BJP, non-Congress leaders and chief ministers--M K Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal, Hemant Soren and Bhagwant Mann.
Others include NCP's Sharad Pawar and SP leader and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav of the RLD.
TRS activist from the city, Telangana Sai is the man behind these posters.
He said he came up with the idea as he wanted to make people in UP and across the country know about Rao and that the Telangana CM is capable of holding top posts in Delhi with the support of non-BJP leaders.
Though Rao is famous in Telangana and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, he is not too well known in UP, Bihar, Punjab and other states, Sai told PTI.
The posters hailed Rao as 'desh ka neta' (leader of the country).
At a recent public meeting in Siddipet district in the state, Rao had said he is moving in the direction of influencing national politics and that he would use all his abilities to set the things right in the country, "even by shedding the last drop of blood".
He had earlier met Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, Stalin and Thackeray, respectively.
Kishor, who is credited with successfully handling the campaigns of several political parties in assembly elections in different states, including the DMK and TMC in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal last year, had recently met Rao but no arrangement between him and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has been crystalised yet, TRS sources had earlier said.