(Image source from: TheNewsMinute)
TRS May Skip Opposition Parties Meeting on May 21:- The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) will not be part of a planned meeting of opposition parties on May 21 to chalk out a post-poll alliance, a party leader said Saturday.
A confidant of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Karimnagar Member of Parliament B Vinod Kumar said the party cannot be part of any meeting with Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
According to sources, Naidu met Congress President Rahul Gandhi two days ago and agreed to call a meeting of Opposition parties on May 2.
Kumar said: "We can't be part of any meeting with Chandrababu Naidu. That's very clear".
The TRS position does not come as an astonishment as KCR and Naidu don't see eye-to-eye.
Taking on the TRS, the TDP had fought last year's Assembly elections in Telangana in alliance with the Congress. The campaigning at the timewitnessed KCR launching an all-out attack on Naidu, and war of words between the leaders of the two Telugu States.
Naidu is a key interlocutor of the opposition, including the Congress, making an attempt to forge a united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Kumar described this role of Naidu's as "self-proclaimed".
KCR has been pushing the idea of a non-BJP, non-Congress federal front of regional parties since earlier this year.
Asked if the TDP is not going to be part of this front, Kumar said: "In Andhra Pradesh, he (Naidu) is not going to win Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. After May 23rd, his role will be minimal."
Kumar, who was deputy floor leader of TRS in Lok Sabha, indicated that KCR's proposed meeting with DMK chief MK Stalin, as part of the latter's outreach to opposition parties, is still on.
He said the meeting was scheduled for May 13 but there were media reports that Stalin would not be available on that day.
"But they (DMK) have not informed us that we are not going to meet on May 13th. Within a day or two depending on his election campaigning...because he is moving around the whole State, so whether the time suits us...if possible we may meet a day earlier or a day after," Kumar said.
Earlier this week, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party indicated that Stalin might not meet KCR on May 13 as he was "busy" with his campaign schedule for the May 19 by-polls to four constituencies Tamil Nadu.
The reports speculating about the TRS softening its stand vis-a-vis the Congress in a section of the media, Kumar declined to comment on “presumptions and assumptions: which he said would go on till election results are declared.
By Sowmya
