NEW DELHI: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will attend Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) public rally on September 25 in Haryana, according to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders. The rally “Samman Diwas” is being organised to mark the birth anniversary of former deputy Prime minister and party founder Devi Lal.
The rally, which will be attended by a galaxy of Opposition leaders including Bihar Chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav is being seen as the coming together of opposition parties against the BJP in the run-up to the 2024 General elections. INLD says that the rally will be a historic ‘Samman Divas’ and it will mark the ‘beginning of a change with the participation of lakhs of people.
Apart from KCR, several regional leaders such as NCP chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav are expected to attend the rally. The invitees also include TDP president Chandrababu Naidu and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee among others. According to INLD leaders, Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal and many more are likely to attend the rally.
For KCR, who has been meeting several regional leaders in the recent past, the rally will be an opportunity to renew his ties, say sources. While he met Nitish Kumar in Bihar after he walked out of the alliance with the BJP, KCR also held deliberations with JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy in Hyderabad last week.
Hectic parleys between Opposition leaders will take place on the sidelines of the meeting, said TRS sources. The rally comes on the heels of the announcement of KCR to launch a national party with an alternative national agenda against the saffron party. TRS leaders said that the party will try to expand its footprints in other states such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and other states and will be seeking the support of leaders of those states.
While INLD chief and former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his son Abhay Chautala have been inviting leaders from many walks, Congress is conspicuously absent among the invitees. Though some of the opposition parties including TRS, JDS and TMC favour an Opposition bloc minus Congress, Nitish Kumar has been keen on taking the grand old party on board.
TRS leaders say that though Nitish has emerged as a key player in bringing the opposition parties together, KCR is open to working with him at the national level. “Though the last meeting between Nitish and KCR did not end on a positive note, KCR is open to working with him,” said the TRS leader.
Last week, Kumar met several opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Arvind Kejriwal, and CPI(M) Sitaram Yechury among many others. In the 2019 polls, the INLD was routed with only Abhay managing to win the election from Ellanabad. He had later resigned from his seat in solidarity with farmers’ year-long agitation against the now-repealed three contentious central farm laws.
The 87-year-old Jat leader and five-time CM, Chautala, who came out of prison last year on completion of his 10-year jail term, has been looking to help the INLD stage a comeback in Haryana politics through the Samman Diwas rally.