Hyderabad: After meeting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday, K. Chandrashekar Rao plans to visit more states to forge an opposition coalition of local parties to take on the BJP in the general elections of 2024.
The CM is getting ready to visit West Bengal to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and extend Rs 10 lakh financial aid to each of the families of the two soldiers who died in Galwan Valley. After his visit to West Bengal, he will visit poll-bound BJP-ruled states Gujarat, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh, where he will meet with leaders of farmers’ unions and other organisations and showcase the “Telangana model” of welfare programmes.
He may also explore options to field or support independent candidates in the Assembly elections to demand implementation of these schemes in the respective states. Asked if supporting independents would not affect Opposition partners, sources said the CM wanted to consult and convince non-BJP parties to support farmers leaders in two or three seats where they are strong.
Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh are due in November and Gujarat in December and in Karnataka in May next. Rao wants to undertake political activities in these states with a slogan of achieving “BJP mukt Bharat.”
The CM’s visit to Bihar on Wednesday, according to TRS leaders, was a “huge success” and attracted “unusual national attention.” They were upbeat over Nitish Kumar and Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav heaping praises on Rao for his welfare schemes and development programmes.
Speaking to media here on Thursday, TRS MLCs Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, D. Rajeshwar Rao and K. Janardhan Reddy said that with Rao’s entry into national politics, the political landscape would witness a paradigm shift.
“The support for KCR is growing across all the states. KCR’s visit to various states for the past few months is garnering a lot of attention from all the sections. People in various states are gradually coming to know the good governance offered by KCR with his innovative development programmes and welfare schemes. The demand for implementing Telangana government’s schemes is growing across India,” claimed Rajeshwar Reddy.
He stated that the CM’s tours to the states would continue in the coming days, adding that efforts are being made to launch a Farmers’ United Front at the national level to take up farmers’ cause and implement the “Telangana model” for the welfare of farmers.
He recalled the resolution passed by farmers’ leaders of 25 states recently at a meeting held at Pragathi Bhavan urging Rao to lead the national farmers’ movement demanding implementation of the “Telangana model” across the country.
On Wednesday Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav praised Chandrashekar Rao for visiting Bihar to extend financial assistance to kin of soldiers martyred in Galwan valley and 12 Bihar workers who died in fire accident in Hyderabad. “The Telangana government arranged special trains to transport the people of Bihar during the Covid-19 lockdown period. It proves CM KCR’s generosity,” Nitish kumar said. Rao undertook a nine-hour visit to Bihar.
Stating that the role of Rao in the formation of Telangana state and its development was commendable, Nitish Kumar said, “KCR will go down in history as the one and only leader who fought for a separate Telangana, achieved a separate state and placed the Telangana as a leading state in the country.” Tejashwi Yadav launded the welfare schemes and development programmes being implemented in Telangana.
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