Telangana CM back to playing coalition mind games
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s meeting with his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin in Chennai on Tuesday sent out signals that the TRS supremo was trying to revive his concept of a federal front, made up of anti-BJP and anti-Congress parties. Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Telangana CM had rolled the dice with this front that has a pro-farmer agenda, but with the BJP sweeping the polls, it came unstuck.
Now that there are indications, though imperceptible, that the BJP may no longer be the party of the hour after below-par performances in bypolls recently—including losing all seats in chief J P Nadda’s home state of Himachal—the opposition is trying to get its act together to stitch up an alternative formation. After TMC chief Mamata Banerjee set the cat among the pigeons with her intentions to lead the coalition, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan echoed her opinion and said that the Congress cannot be an alternative to the BJP since their economic policies are too similar.
But KCR’s line of thinking is not clear yet. As he is still cagey about his plans, the opposition parties do not know where he fits in the shifting political sands. He wants to be both anti-Congress and anti-BJP but his actions do not support his thinking. He met Stalin, whose party is with the Congress. The MPs of TRS attended a meeting called by the Congress to finalise a strategy to corner the BJP in Parliament. When KCR was in Delhi recently, he neither met Mamata, who was in the nation’s capital incidentally at that time, nor did he visit any anti-BJP forces or even the agitating farmers.
Then the TRS MPs wound up their show in Parliament prematurely and returned to Hyderabad, raising doubts over whom KCR is helping, the BJP or the opposition. For other parties to take KCR seriously, he has to act in a way that would clear all doubts about his moves. One can be a player in the game but leading a political team would not be easy. On whether KCR wants to lead a front or be a follower, a clearer picture may emerge after polls in five states are over in February-March 2022. Till then, KCR may continue his parleys with leaders at his convenience giving scope for more speculation.